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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 

Ex  Libris 

Katharine  F.   Richmond 

and 

Henry  C.  Fall 


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BY 

Lyman  S.  Hayes 

Author  of  History  of  the  Town  of  Rockingham,  Ft. 

AND 

WILLIAM  D.  HAYES 


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BELLOWS  FALLS,  VT. 

191 5 


Copyright  191  St  by  L.  S.  Hayes 


Photographs  by  R.  C.  Bristol  and  William  D.  Hayes 


Marginal  Illustrations  by  Miss  Mary  E.  Baker 


Designed  and    printed  by 

The  P.   H.  Gobie  Press 
Bellows  Falls.  Vt. 


F 


To  the  Memory 

of 

REV.  SAMUEL  WHITING 

the  first  settled  minister  of  the  town  of  rock- 
ingham,  who  by  word  and   example   exerted 
such  a  powerful  influence  on  the  town 
throughout  his  pastorate   from    ijjt, 
to    1809,  during  the  critical   pe- 
riod of  the  war  of  the  revo- 
lution and  the  period  of 
construction  immedi- 
ately following 
it; 

AND 

PROF.  FRANKLIN  W.  HOOPER,  Ph.  D.,  LL.  D. 

president  of  the  old  rockingham  meeting  house 
association   from   its   organization   until   his 
death  in  i9i4,  who  was  so  largely  respon- 
sible for  the  present  day  knowledge 
of,  and  interest  in,  the  old  rock- 
ingham meeting  house, 

This  Book  is  Inscribed 

BY  THE  AITHORS 


1 066836 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

FOREWORD 9 

THE  CANDLE   IN  THE   CHOIR,   by   Percy 

MacKaye  (poem) 1 1 

I.    THE   MEETING  HOUSE 15 

Planned  by  the  Original  Proprietors  of  the  Town 
at  their  First  Meeting  in  1753 — Allotment  of 
Land — Site  Chosen  near  Geographical  Centre 
of  Town — Small  Temporary  Structure  Erected, 
1774— Present  Meeting  House  Started  about 
1787 — Not  Completed  until  1801 — Used  both  for 
Church  Services  and  Town  Meetings — One  of  the 
Finest  Examples  in  New  England  of  Colonial 
Church  Architecture — Keepers  of  the  Key — The 
Burying  Ground. 

II.    THE   CHURCH  ORGANIZATION 26 

Temporary  Preachers  until  1773 — First  Church 
in  Rockingham  Organized  and  Rev.  Samuel  Whit- 
ing Ordained  October  27,  1773 — Records  of  The 
First  Church — Supported  by  a  Tax  Levied  by 
the  Town — Many  Citizens  Escape  Tax  by  Filing 
Certificates— Mr.  Whiting  Dismissed  at  his  own 
•  Request,  1809 — Reorganized  181 8  as  the  "Con- 
gregational Church  of  Christ  in  Rockingham" — 
Support  of  Town  withdrawn — -Organization  Ab- 
andoned, 1840— Discipline  of  Members — Cove- 
nants— Communion  Service  Destroyed  by  Fire. 

III.  THE  MINISTER 44 

Rev.  Andrew  Gardner  and  Rev.  Elisha  Harding 
early  Preachers  for  the  Town — Rev.  Samuel 
Whiting,  First  Settled  Minister,  1773-1809 — Rev. 
Elijah  Wollage,  1818-1822 — Rev.  Samuel  Mason, 
1837-1838 — Rev.  Broughton  White,  1839. 

IV.  THE   MEETING  HOUSE  RESTORED 51 

Abandoned  for  Regular  Church  Services  in  1839 — 
Used  for  Town  Meetings  until  1869 — Interior 
Changed  for  Town  Meetings  and  Small  Parts 
Removed  by  Curio  Seekers — Restored  to  Orig- 
inal Condition  by  Town  and  Private  Subscrip- 
tion in  1906 — Re-dedicated,  August  17,  1907 — 
Tablet  to  Dr.  Reuben  Jones — Pews  of  Early  Wor- 
shippers Marked  by  Plates. 


Contents 

V.    THE    OLD   ROCKINGHAM    MEETING 

HOUSE    ASSOCIATION 57 

Organized  191 1  to  Arrange  Annual  Pilgrimages 
to  the  Old  Meeting  House — Officers — Member- 
ship. 

VI.     ANNUAL    PILGRIMAGES    TO    THE    OLD 

MEETING   HOUSE 61 

Each  Year  since  1907 — Arranged  now  by  the 
Association — Addresses  by  Prominent  Men — 
Attract  Large  Numbers  from  Far  and  Near. 

APPENDIX 

1:     Members  of  the  First  Church  in  Rockingham.  .  .       66 
11 :     List  of  Those  Filing  Certificates  with  Town  Clerk  to 

Avoid  Assisting  in  Support  of  the  Town  Church       73 
in:     Extracts  from  Town  and  Church  Records. 

a:     Organization  of  the  First  Church  in  Rock- 
ingham, October  27,  1773 77 

b:     Letter  from  Rev.  Samuel  Whiting  to  Town, 

January   13,  1783 78 

c:     Letter  from   Rev.    Samuel  Whiting  to  his 

Congregation,  1798 79 

d:     Investigation    by    the     Town    of    Charges 

against  Rev.  Samuel  Whiting  in  1799 80 

e:     Dismissal  of  Rev.  Samuel  Whiting,  1809. .  .        82 
f:     Reorganization      as     the      Congregational 
Church  of  Christ  in  Rockingham,  Novem- 
ber 5,  1818 85 

g:     Ordination  of  Rev.  Samuel  Mason,  January 

3,.  1837 87 

h:     Dismissal  of  Rev.  Samuel  Mason,  August 

22,   1838 88 

1:     Entries    in    Church    Records    Bearing    on 

Articles  of    Faith    and    Covenant  of  the 

Church,    1773-1818 89 

j:     Confession  of  Faith,  Covenant  and  Rules  of 

the  Church  after  its  Reorganization  in  1818       92 

k:     The  Meeting  House  Completed 93 

iv:     Bibliography   Regarding    the    Old    Rockingham 

Meeting  House 95 

v:     Constitution    of    the    Old    Rockingham   Meeting 

House  Association 96 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

'J 'he  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House,  and  the 

Town  Tomb Frontispiece 

Interior  of  the  Meeting  House,  showing  the  old- 
fashioned  Pews  and  the  Pulpit 16 

Interior  of  the  Meeting  House,    from  the  Gallery  22 

Record  Book  of  the  First  Church  in  Rockingham  28 

The  Pulpit 36 

Main  Entrance  of  the  Meeting  House 36 

Communion   Cups   and   Linen  Used   in   the  Old 

Meeting  House 42 

The  High  Pulpit  and  Sounding  Board 42 

The  Minister's  House 46 

Heavy  Roof  Timbers  in  the  Attic  of  the  Meeting 

House 46 

The  Dr.  Reuben  Jones  Tablet 56 

Plate  Marking  Pew  occupied  by  Josiah  White.  .  .  56 
The  Meeting  House  Surrounded  by  the  Burying 

Ground 60 

The  Deacons'  Seats 60 

The  Old  Meeting  House,  from  across  the  Williams 

River  \  alley 64 

First  Floor  Diagram 76 

Second  Floor  Diagram s'' 


s-  i 


,_ 


FOREWORD 

''''Where  two  or  three  arc  gathered  together  in  my  nan 
there  am  I  in  the  midst  of  them.  " 

N  a  commanding  eminence,  in  the  almost 
geographical  centre  of  the  town  of  Rocking- 
ham, Vermont,  overlooking  the  nearly  deserted 
village  bearing  the  same  name,  and  surrounded 
by  its  burying  ground,  stands  one  of  the  finest 
examples  of  Colonial  church  architecture  still 
remaining  in  New  England.  Without  spire  or 
other  break  in  its  severely  plain,  puritanical 
lines,  excepting  only  a  small  "porch"  or  enclosed  entry 
and  stairway  on  each  end,  its  high  glistening  white  walls 
overlook  for  miles  the  beautiful  Williams  River  valley, 
and  serve  as  a  reminder  of  the  early  thought — aim 
passion — of  our  forefathers  for  things  religious  and  civil.' 
Erected  by  the  town  in  1787,  at  the  close  of  the 
trying  Revolutionary  period,  and  replacing  a  temporal} 
smaller  structure  built  in  1774,  it  served  for  forty-two 
years — throughout  the  entire  period  of  construction  of 
this  American  republic — as  the  Meeting  House  for 
religious  services  of  the  citizens  of  the  surrounding 
country;  and  for  eighty-two  years,  as  the  town's  meet- 
ing place  for  the  decision  of  the  weighty  measures  upon 
whose  careful  discussion  and  correct  solution  depended 
the  substantial  foundation  and  growth  of  one  of  the 
earliest  settled  and  most  important  towns  of  the  State 
of  Vermont.  With  a  local  outlook,  it  has  seen  the  town 
grow  from  a  tiny  settlement  of  farmers,  whose  interests 
centered  around  their  meeting  house,  country  store 
and  post  office,  to  a  thriving  town  centered  around  its 
water  powers  at  Bellows  Falls,  Saxtons  River,  and 
Cambridgeport;  and  it  has  seen  the  village  ol  Rocking- 


Forezvord 

ham  grow  to  an  important  place  in  early  days  in  the 
affairs  of  the  vicinity  and  the  entire  State,  and  then 
dwindle,  through  the  growth  of  manufacturing  interests 
in  other  parts  of  the  town  to  a  tiny  hamlet  without  even 
a  store  or  post  office.  With  a  broader  outlook,  it  has 
seen  the  State  of  Vermont  grow  from  a  collection  of 
farming  settlements,  whose  possession  was  disputed 
by  two  more  populous  states,  and  the  Mother  Country, 
through  the  period  of  entire  independence,  to  a  position 
as  a  sovereign  state  of  these  mighty  United  States, 
occupying  a  place  in  area  small,  but  far  from  worthy 
of  being  despised. 

Around  this  Meeting  House  in  early  days  under  the 
leadership  of  the  town's  first  minister,  Rev.  Samuel 
Whiting,  was  gathered  and  organized  the  eighth  Con- 
gregational church  in  Vermont,  supported  entirely  by 
public  taxation.  At  the  withdrawal  of  civil  support, 
the  church  organization  was  temporarily  abandoned; 
later  reorganized  as  the  Congregational  Church  of 
Christ  in  Rockingham;  and  this  organization,  after 
twenty-one  years  of  struggle,  was  abandoned  because 
of  the  gathering  of  the  population  around  the  water 
powers  in  other  parts  of  the  town. 

The  building,  its  interior  slightly  changed  for  tem- 
porary uses  and  its  movable  parts  gradually  taken 
away  for  souvenirs,  has  lately  been  put  back  into  its 
original  austere  simplicity,  and  is  lovingly  cared  for  by 
the  town,  which  still  owns  it,  and  its  citizens,  who  still 
love  it.  Each  summer,  it  is  the  scene  of  an  Annual 
Pilgrimage,  under  the  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 
Association,  when  people  gather  from  far  and  near  to 
pay  their  homage  to  the  sturdy  simplicity,  self-sacri- 
ficing honesty  and  effort,  and  the  far-seeing  policies  of 
the  forefathers  who  built  this  country  for  us  to  enjoy. 


THE  CANDLE  IN  THE  CHOIR 

I 
In  Rockingham  upon  the  hill 

The  meeting-house  shines  lone  and  still:  :-^->- 

A  bare,  star-cleaving  gable-peak, 
Broad  roofbeamed,  snow-ribbed,  stark  and  bleak, 
As  long  ago  their  needs  sufficed 
Who  came  from  cottage  fires  to  Christ, 

Sharing  with  frosty  breath 

Their  foot-stoves  and  their  faith. 

II 

In  Rockingham  above  the  hill 
The  stars  are  few,  the  winds  are  shrill; 
And  pale  as  little  clouds,  the  prayers 
Pulse  upward  round  the  pulpit  stairs, 
Where  silent  deacons  upright  sit 
Among  the  gusty  shadows,  that  flit 

From  hands  upholding  higher 

Faint  candles  in  the  choir. 

Ill 

Seven  candles  make  a  shining  dim 
To  mark  the  psalm  and  find  the  hymn; 
Seven  candles  from  the  choir  rail  throw 
Their  blessing  on  the  pews  below; 
Seven  candles  make  a  glimmering  heaven 
Of  righteousness,  but  one  of  seven 

Shines  in  the  hand  of  her: 

Elvira  Pulsifer. 

IF 

High  on  its  place  of  holy  fire 

The  towered  pulpit  fronts  the  choir, 

From  whence  the  pastor's  hand  may  strow 

The  penfolds  of  his  flock  below, 

Or  sign,  from  under  level  brows, 

Tozvard  them — the  seven  of  his  house 

Who  sing  with  one  accord 

The  service  of  the  Lord. 


(This  poem,  based  on  a  family  tradition,  was  written  by  Percy  MacKaye  especially 
for  the  Rockingham  Meeting  House  Association,  and  was  read  by  the  author  at  the 
Sixth  Annual  Pilgrimage,  August  4.  1912.  The  "Elvira  Pulsifer"  referred  to  was  the 
mother  of  Prof.  Franklin  W.  Hooper,  president  of  the  Association.  The  poem  is  taken 
from  "Uriel  and  Other  Poems"  (Houghton,  Mifflin  Co.)  and  is  here  published  bv  per- 
mission of  the  Author.) 


V 

Gaunt  looms  the  shepherd  in  his  gown: 

"0  Lord,  Lord  God,  who  lookest  down 

Serene  from  Sinai's  dazzling  height 

On  deeps  of  everlasting  night — 

Deeps  where  Thy  scorching  ire  hath  streamed 

Like  lava  on  the  unredeemed — 

Be  merciful  to  her, 

Elvira  Pulsifer! 

J' I 
"  Thou  art  our  Father,  Lord,  Lord  God! 
And  they  who  kiss  Thy  shining  rod 
And  break  Thy  bread  and  keep  Thy  tryst — 
They  walk  this  bitter  world  with  Christ; 
All  else  with  dire  Apollyon  dwell. — 
0  save  her  tender  soul  from  Hell, 

And  with  Thy  Pity  stir 

Elvira  Pulsifer! 

VII 

''''Brethren,  the  thirty-second  Psalm! 
And  let  your  solemn  voices  calm 
The  secret  fiend  from  his  intent, 
And  make  a  virgin  heart  repent!" — ■ 
Thin  from  the  dark  the  pitch-pipe  sounds 
Its  note,  faint  stir  the  crisping  gowns, 

While  the  dim  shepherd  there 

Creaks  down  the  frosty  stair. 

VIII 

A  shrilling  sweet  of  childish  throats, 
With  sombre  bass  of  elders,  floats 
Around  him  through  the  raftered  room, 
And  elvish  from  the  outer  gloom 
Seven  candles  on  the  little  panes 
Sway  to  the  choir's  subdued  refrains, 

As  down  the  aisleway  floor 

He  seeks  the  entry  door. 

IX 

More  faintly  now,  as  if  more  far, 

He  hears  them  through  the  door  ajar, 

While  from  the  entry,  climbing  soft, 

He  flurries  to  the  choir  loft: 

Here  to  a  darkhyig  privacy 

He  beckons — so  her  glance  may  see — 

God's  errant  worshipper: 

Elvira  Pulsifer. 


X 

Candle  and  hymnal  in  her  hands, 

She  comes  to  where  the  shepherd  stands — 

Her  shepherd  who  hath  labored  sore, 

With  venerable  neighbors  more, 

To  lead  her  spirit  to  the  fold 

Where  all  her  kinsfolk  came  of  old: 

All  them  she  loved  full  well, 

But  not — their  fear  of  hell. 

XI 

Anxious  they  whisper  in  the  aisle  _ 
{The  shrilling  voices  swoon  the  while 
And  boom  like  cymbals  in  her  ears): 
11  Our  Lord  and  Father,  child,  He  hears 
The  cry  of  sin's  repentant  heart; 
0  obdurate,  zvalk  not  apart 

With  one  who  darkens  all, 

But  come  to  Christ  His  call. " 

XII 

"Our  Lord  He  is  our  Father,  yes, 
And  He  hath  come  in  tenderness 
To  me,  in  hours  both  bright  and  dim. 
There  is  no  one  at  all  but  Him; 
And  so  I  cannot  walk  apart 
Nor  cry  with  a  repentant  heart, 

Nor  heed  another's  call, 

For  God  is  good  to  all." 

XIII 
uHis  wrath  it  is  eternal,  child. 
Who  fear  it  not  they  are  defiled. 
They  may  not  sit  in  choir  or  pew, 
Defiant,  with  His  chosen  few. 
The  hymn  is  ended,  now  return: 
But  nevermore  His  light  to  spurn!" 

Dark,  dark,  she  turns  about: 

Her  candle — he  hath  blown  out. 

XIV 

0  elvish  from  the  outer  gloom 
Six  little  flames  they  leer  and  loom. 
And  elvish  on  the  frosty  panes 
Six  candles  mock  the  choir's  refrains. 
But  one  all  dark,  by  inward  grace 
Shines  on  unseen,  and  lights  the  face 

Of  Christ  His  worshipper: 

Elvira  Pulsifer. 

— Percy  MacKaye. 


CHAPTER    I 

The  Meeting  House 

""7  \jmm .  (TV 

THE  history  of  practically  every  New  England  town 
shows  that  among  the  first  matters  to  be  taken 
up  by  the  original  proprietors  or  the  early  settlers,  was 
the  erection  of  a  town  meeting  house  and  the  establish- 
ment of  public  worship,  or  action  looking  to  both  in  the 
early  future.  The  records  in  the  Town  Clerk's  office 
show  that  Rockingham,  Vermont,  was  no  exception 
in  this  regard. 

At  the  first  meetings  of  the  Proprietors  of  the  Town 
ol  Rockingham,  Vermont,  in  1753  and  1754,  steps  were 
taken  looking  toward  both  the  hiring  of  a  regular 
minister  and  the  building  of  a  meeting  house.  The 
first  building,  a  small  temporary  structure,  was  erected 
in  1774;  and  the  present  Meeting  House  was  started  in 
1787  or  1788.  But  these  ends  were  not  attained  with- 
out great  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  the  few  settlers  in  the 
town  at  the  time,  especially  when  it  is  remembered  that 
the  War  of  the  Revolution  and  the  subsequent  forma- 
tion of  a  new  country  severely  taxed  both  their  time 
and  finances. 

Under  date  of  December  28,  1752,  King  George  II, 
through  Governor  Benning  Wentworth  of  the  Province 
of  New  Hampshire,  issued  a  charter  for  the  Town  of 
Rockingham  to  fifty-nine  men,  known  as  the  Grantees 
or  Proprietors.  These  men  held  their  first  meeting 
March  28,  1753,  before  there  was  any  permanent  settle- 
ment in  town.  At  this  meeting,  they  instructed  a 
committee  to  set  aside  six  acres  of  land  "for  a  Meeting 
house  place".*     At  their  second  meeting  in  May,  1754, 


♦"Proprietors  Records"  of  the  Town  of  Rockingham,  in  the  office  of  the  town 
clerk  at  Bellows  Falls,  Vt. 


1 6  The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 

they  specified  that  the  six  acres  should  be  the  "North 
End  of  House  Lott  Number  three;"  and  assigned  house 
lot  No.  3,  io-acre  meadow  lot  No.  13,  and  3-acre 
meadow  lot  No.  14  to  the  first  settled  town  minister. 
This  was  later  increased  by  the  following:  Citydale  lot 
No.  143,  one  acre;  lot  No.  6,  range  3,  ninety  acres;  lot 
No.  11,  range  6,  ninety  acres;  lot  No.  14,  range  9, 
ninety  acres;  lot  No.  30,  range  9,  forty-five  acres. 

These  assignments  make  a  total  of  three  hundred 
and  forty-nine  acres  set  apart  at  the  very  first  for  the 
support  of  the  town  church  when  it  should  be  estab- 
lished. Until  a  settled  minister  was  chosen,  the  land 
was  leased  to  various  parties,  and  the  income  from  it 
expended  in  public  improvements,  such  as  road  building, 
and  later  directly  towards  the  erection  of  a  meeting 
house. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  proprietors  held  in  1761,  lots 
Nos.  1  to  4  in  the  tenth  range,  and  Nos.  1  to  3  in  the 
ninth  range  were  "  Set  of  .  .  .  for  ye  Church  and 
the  Propurgating  of  the  Gospel  in  forarn  parts  ".  These 
lots,  located  north  of  the  village  of  Cambridgeport,  are 
at  least  in  part  still  owned  by  the  town  and  the  income 
from  them  goes  to  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in  the  Diocese  of  Vermont,  together  with  that  from 
similar  lots  in  nearly  every  town  in  this  State.  Thus, 
while  the  proprietors  planned  for  the  support  of  their 
own  church,  they  did  not  forget  the  old-established 
Church  of  England. 

In  1760,  after  the  close  of  the  French  and  Indian 
War,  the  danger  of  depredations  from  Indians  was 
largely  over,  and  the  permanent  settlement  of  the  town 
was  begun.  The  town  government  was  organized  in 
March,  1761,  and  from  that  date  the  story  of  the  effort 
to  build  a  meeting  house  and  establish  a  town  church 
is  told  in  the  records  of  the  town  in  the  Town  Clerk's 
office. 

In  1770,  the  question  was  considered  by  the  voters 


2 


CO 


The  Meeting  House  17 

of  erect ing  a  town  meeting  house,  to  serve  both  as  a 
place  for  town  meetings,  and  for  public  worship.  Settle- 
ment had  not  progressed  quite  far  enough  at  that  time, 
however.  The  following  year,  the  town  voted  to  erect 
a  building  for  this  purpose  and  chose  a  committee  to 
decide  on  a  location.  The  committee's  report  was 
turned  down  at  a  town  meeting  in  April,  1772,  and  the 
vote  passed  "that  the  meeting  house  be  set  on  the  hill 
west  of  David  Pulsiphers  house",  which  would  be 
practically  the  location  chosen  in  the  end.  In  1773,  the 
town  voted  to  build  a  "small  house  35  feet  long  and  25 
feet  wide — till  the  town  be  able  to  build  a  Larger". 
Peter  Evans,  Jr.,  Samuel  Taylor  and  John  Lovcll  were 
chosen  to  build  the  house. 

Rev.  Samuel  Whiting  became  the  first  settled 
minister,  in  October,  1773,  and  regular  church  services 
probably  date  from  that  time.  Despite  this  fact,  this 
committee  did  not  build  the  house,  and  in  the  fall 
of  1774  a  new  committee  was  chosen,  consisting  of 
Oliver  Lovell,  Lieutenant  Jonathan  Burt,  and  Lieuten- 
ant Peter  Evans,  the  size  of  the  building  increased  by 
the  addition  of  five  feet  in  width  and  one  foot  ten  inches 
in  height,  the  location  chosen  in  1772  agreed  upon  again, 
and  "voted  that  the  trustees  find  four  galonds  of  Rum 
to  Raise  and  frame  said  house".  The  latter  item,  while 
in  accord  with  old  time  customs,  would  excite  some 
comment,  at  least,  in  the  present  day,  especially  when 
the  building  was  to  be  used  for  church  purposes. 

This  temporary  structure,  to  be  replaced  in  a  lew 
years  by  the  present  building,  was  erected  in  the  fall  of 
1774,  since  a  town  meeting,  December  12,  was  opened 
in  the  building.  The  combination  of  its  unfinished 
condition  and  wind-swept  location  made  it  a  trifle  cool 
for  a  December  day  in  Vermont,  and  after  inspecting 
the  building,  the  meeting  was  adjourned  to  the  house 
of  David  Pulsipher  nearby.  They  then  voted  to  accept 
the  building  and  "aLou  the  acompts". 


i 


iSiiw  ''-'Hi 


1 8  The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 

For  the  present  centres  of  population  in  the  town  of 
Rockingham,  the  location  of  the  Meeting  House  where 
it  was  built  would  be  decidedly  inconvenient.  At  that 
time,  however,  the  population  was  much  more  evenly 
scattered  over  the  entire  town;  Bellows  Falls  and 
Saxtons  River  villages  had  been  settled  little,  if  any, 
and  Rockingham  village,  the  geographical  centre  of  the 
town,  was  the  proper  location.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
is  quite  probable  that  this  village  grew  up  around  the 
Meeting  House,  rather  than  that  the  Meeting  House  was 
located  at  the  village. 

In  voting  to  place  the  Meeting  House  on  a  hill,  the 
town  carried  out  the  usual  custom  of  early  days  of 
locating  such  buildings  on  some  eminence,  where  they 
could  be  seen  for  miles  around,  and  where,  in  addition, 
they  would  be  strategically  located  for  defense  from 
hostile  Indians. 

The  temporary  building  was  thirty-five  by  thirty 
feet,  and  the  arrangement  of  the  interior  was  much  the 
same  as  that  of  the  first  floor  of  the  present  building, 
since  there  was  "a  Roe  of  wall  Pews  Round  the  meeting 
house  and  Eight  pews  in  the  middle  and  three  seats 
Each  side  the  Alley  next  the  pulpit".  The  pews  were 
drawn  by  lot,  with  the  proviso  that  the  owners  should 
seal  the  floor,  glaze  the  windows,  and  build  the  pews. 
Record  is  found  of  a  total  of  forty-seven  pounds  (about 
$234),  raised  by  the  town  to  build  the  building. 

The  land  on  which  the  building  was  erected  was 
obtained  from  David  Pulsipher,  but  the  deed  was  not 
acknowledged  before  his  death.  It  was  purchased  by 
William  Simonds,  David  Pulsipher,  Charles  Richards 
and  Nathaniel  Davis,  and  presented  to  the  town  by 
them. 

In  1786,  three  years  after  the  end  of  the  Revolution, 
the  inhabitants  of  the  town  felt  that  the  time  had 
come  for  a  more  commodious  meeting  house,  and  they 
petitioned  the  General  Assembly  to  grant  a  land  tax 


The    Meeting    House  19 

in  order  to  raise  money  for  this  purpose.  This  was 
evidently  granted,*  for  at  a  town  meeting  held  in  the 
temporary  building  April  10,  1787,  the  following  votes 
were  passed  providing  for  the  new  building: 

"Voted  that  the  Committee  appointed  by  the 
Legislature  of  the  state  of  Vermont  to  build  a  town 
house  in  Rockingham  are  Directed  to  sell  pews  in 
said  house  to  the  highest  bidder  for  to  raise  money 
to  be  Laid  out  for  the  purpose  of  finishing  sd  House. 

3  ly  Voted  that  the  Committee  Build  the  town 
House  Just  as  Large  as  Charlestown  Meeting  House 
as  to  the  square  of  it. 

4  ly  Voted  to  Build  two  porches  one  at  each  end. 

5  ly  Voted  to  have  the  plan  of  the  inside  of  sd 
House  agreable  to  the  inside  of  the  Meeting  House 
in  Charlestown. 

6  ly  Voted  that  Every  Person  that  Buys  a  pew 
in  sd  House  shall  Git  a  Bond-man  to  the  acceptance 
of  the  Commettee. 

7  ly  Voted  to  have  the  Obligations  that  shall  be 
given  to  the  Commettee  for  the  pews  shall  be  half 
due  bv  the  first  of  December  next  and  the  other  half 

J 

due  by  the  first  of  December  then  next. 

8  ly  Voted  to  have  the  pews  finished  which  are 
sold  with  the  money  which  is  given  for  sd  pews." 

At  an  adjourned  town  meeting,  held  April  24, 
1787,  it  was  "Voted  to  reconsider  the  3d  vote  (re- 
lating to  the  'Bigness'  of  the  town  house).  Voted 
to  Build  the  town  house  forty-four  feet  wide  and 
fifty-six  feet  long, "  which  are  the  dimensions  of  the 
present  structure.! 

Positive  proof  is  lacking  of  the  exact  date  of  the 
erection  of  the  Rockingham  Meeting  House,  which  has 
stood  for  so  many  years  as  an  emblem  of  the  piety  and 
civic  pride  of  the  early  inhabitants.  The  question  of 
this  date  was  discussed  at  length  by  A.  N.  Swain  in  the 
Bellows  Falls  Times  in  1884,  and  it  was  then  definitely 
settled  that  the  frame  was  raised  June  9,  1787,  largely 

*A  search  of  the  records  in  the  Secretary  of  State's  office  fails  to  show  any  action 
by  the  legislature  or  the  personel  of  the  committee  chosen  by  them. 
fTown  records,  Vol.  I,  p.  95. 


20  The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 

on  the  basis  of  a  letter  from  Rev.  Horace  Allbee  of  this 
town,  then  in  his  eighty-eighth  year,  printed  in  the 
Times  of  October  2,  1884: 

"Mr.  Editor:  In  corroboration  of  the  state- 
ments which  I  made  to  you  in  regard  to  the  date  of 
the  raising  of  the  old  church  at  Rockingham,  which 
statement  appeared  in  the  Times  of  June  19,  1884, 
I  offer  the  following  evidence  which  I  regard  as 
indisputable:  Mrs.  Ezekiel  Weston  was  the  daughter 
of  David  Hazzleton,  who  was  born  in  Rockingham 
in  1 791.  Mrs.  Weston  says  that  she  distinctly 
remembers  that  her  grandmother,  Jane  Hazzleton, 
wife  of  Richard  Hazzleton,  related  to  her  that  her 
eldest  child,  Urial  (Mrs.  Weston's  uncle),  was  born 
on  the  6th  day  of  June,  1787,  and  that  on  the  9th 
day  of  June  of  the  same  year,  before  departing  to 
the  raising  of  the  meeting  house,  her  husband, 
Richard,  came  into  the  house  and  bade  her  and  their 
baby,  who  was  then  only  three  days  old,  good-bye, 
expecting  or  fearing  at  least,  that  he  might  be  killed 
at  the  raising,  but  on  the  contrary  he  returned  in 
safety  to  his  family  after  the  house  was  raised.  And 
further,  my  brother,  E.  W.  Allbee,  says  he  distinctly 
remembers  hearing  our  father,  Ebenezer  Allbee, 
who  was  born  on  the  17th  day  of  April,  1768,  say 
that  he  was  at  the  raising,  being  then  nineteen  years 
of  age,  and  that  it  was  in  June,  1787,  but  does  not 
remember  the  day  of  the  month.  The  statement 
of  Mrs.  Weston  fixes  the  precise  date  of  the  raising 
as  June  9,  1787,  of  which  there  can  be  no  doubt. 

Yours  truly, 

Horace  Allbee." 

Volume  II,  page  372  of  the  records  in  the  Town 
Clerk's  office,  gives  the  date  of  the  birth  of  Urial,  oldest 
child  of  "Richard  and  Jenny  Hazeltine"  as  June  6,  1788. 
The  balance  of  probability  is  felt  to  be  that  the  official 
record  of  the  date  of  birth  as  1788  is  correct,  which  would 
place  the  date  of  the  raising  of  the  frame  as  June  9,  1788. 
However,  since  this  record  is  not  indisputable,  and  the 
date  1787  has  been  commonly  accepted  for  over  thirty 
years,  it  will  probably  be  best  to  let  it  so  stand,  unless 


The  Meeting  House  21 

incontrovertible  evidence  to  the  contrary  should  be 
brought  forward. 

Rev.  Mr.  Allbee  is  also  authority  for  the  statement 
that  "a  wash  tub  full  of  toddy,  made  of  rum  and  loaf 
sugar,  was  prepared  and  notice  was  given  to  the  men  in 
come  down  from  the  frame  and  drink".* 

The  master-builder  under  whom  the  building  was 
erected,  was  General  John  Fuller,  a  prominent  resident 
of  Rockingham  at  that  time,  living  on  a  farm  about 
a  mile  north  of  Rockingham  village.  The  following 
anecdote  is  told  of  the  raising :f 

"After  he  got  everything  ready  the  old  General 
(Fuller)  took  his  bottle  of  rum  in  one  hand,  a  tumb- 
ler in  the  other  and  stood  on  the  plate  of  the  bent 
on  the  south  side,  then  gave  the  order  to  put  it  up  in 
that  position.  He  rode  up  on  the  plate,  and  he  was 
a  man  weighing  200  pounds.  When  they  had  got 
it  up,  he  stood  on  the  plate,  drank  his  health  to  the 
crowd  below,  then  threw  his  bottle  and  tumbler 
down  and  called  for  the  ladder,  coming  down  amid 
loud  and  long  cheering." 

The  new  Meeting  House  was  probably  first  used  by 
the  town  for  their  March  meeting  in  1792.  It  is  said 
that  the  interior  had  not  been  finished,  and  that  the 
pews  consisted  only  of  blocks  of  logs  on  the  top  of 
which  rough  boards  were  laid.  The  windows  had 
probably  not  been  glazed,  nor  had  the  outside  been 
clapboarded.  At  this  meeting,  it  was  decided  that 
the  building  should  be  used  "for  public  worship  and 
town  meetings",  and  after  some  discussion,  the  Con- 
gregationalists  and  Baptists  were  given  the  right  to 
hold  services  there,  but  it  was  refused  to  the  Univer- 
salists.| 

*Bellows  Falls  Times.  June  19,  1S84. 

tLetter  from  Joseph  Willard,  an  aged  man  of  Nashua,  N.  H.,  Bellows  Falls  Times, 
July  17,  1884. 

tThe  Universalists  were  allowed  to  use  the  Meeting  House  by  action  of  the  town 
of  May  2,  1796.  The  term  "Congregationalists"  is  here  used  probably  in  reference 
to  the  first  or  town  church. 


22  The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 

In  1793,  the  town  voted  to  sell  the  old  meeting 
house,  but  what  disposition  was  made  of  it  is  not 
known.  Through  the  next  eight  years,  attempts  were 
made  to  complete  the  new  Meeting  House,  largely 
without  success.  One  entry  in  the  town  records  inti- 
mates that  up  to  1796,  a  total  of  eighty-eight  pounds 
(#440)  had  been  expended  on  the  building. 

In  1799,  the  selectmen  were  petitioned  to  call  a 
special  town  meeting  to  "agree  upon  some  mode  of  fin- 
ishing the  Meeting  House".  As  a  result  of  the  move- 
ment started  then,  it  is  probable  that  the  Meeting  House 
was  entirely  completed  by  1801,  and  the  final  accounts 
were  audited  in  1804.  The  records  of  the  action  of 
the  town  and  its  committees  are  given  in  detail  in  the 
Appendix  (III:  K). 

This  old  Meeting  House,  whose  erection  by  the  early 
settlers  of  the  town  was  such  a  labor  of  love — and  yet 
a  labor  withal — has  stood  for  over  a  century  and  a 
quarter  on  the  hill  overlooking  the  Williams  River  Val- 
ley, surrounded  by  its  burying  ground  and  its  collection 
of  houses  built  by  early  residents  of  Rockingham  village. 
Both  in  architecture  and  construction,  it  is  exceedingly 
typical  of  those  who  built  it.  Severe  in  lines,  almost 
to  austereness,  hiding  in  its  unseen  parts  countless 
massive  timbers  of  great  strength,  it  served  both  the 
town  and  church,  and  stood  against  the  buffeting  of  the 
wind  on  the  exposed  hilltop  for  many  years.  Now  its 
days  of  usefulness  are  largely  passed,  and  it  remains  as 
an  emblem  of  the  past — its  character,  and  what  it 
stood  for. 

In  plan,  the  only  deviation  from  the  pure  rectangle 
are  two  small  entry-ways  on  each  end,  containing  stairs 
leading  to  the  gallery.  The  main  floor  of  the  church 
contains  twenty-four  wall  pews  around  its  outer  wall, 
raised  slightly  above  the  main  floor,  and  two  groups 
of  six  pews  each  in  the  centre,  separated  from  each  other 
and  from  the  wall  pews  by  "alleys".     These  are  all  of 


The  Meeting  House  23 

the  high  back,  square,  "pig-pen"  style,  with  a  seat 
running  around  three  sides,  and  entered  by  a  "door" 
from  the  "alley".  Each  pew  will  accommodate  from 
ten  to  fifteen  people,  though  some,  of  necessity,  must 
turn  their  backs  on  the  minister.  Between  these  pews 
and  the  pulpit,  are  six  long  benches,  and  immediately  in 
front  of  and  below  the  pulpit  is  a  narrow,  enclosed  pew, 
for  the  deacons,  tithing  men  and  other  church  officers. 
The  pulpit,  its  broad  rail  nearly  nine  feet  above  the 
main  church,  is  reached  by  a  winding  stair,  and  is  sur- 
mounted by  its  old  sounding  board.  A  gallery,  two- 
thirds  the  size  of  the  first  floor,  contains  twenty-four 
enclosed  pews  around  its  outer  wall,  in  front  of  which  are 
three  rows  of  benches,  all  on  a  steeply  sloping  floor. 
The  entire  church  will  hold  well  towards  a  thousand 
people.  Its  forty-eight  windows,  each  six  feet  by  three 
feet  and  containing  forty  lights  of  glass,  assured  plenty 
of  light.  Tn  construction,  the  building  is  typical  of  the 
early  days  when  timbers  of  enormous  size  were  every- 
where available,  as  is  graphically  shown  by  a  picture 
of  the  attic  on  another  page. 

The  key  of  the  Meeting  House  was  bid  off  at  each 
March  meeting  to  the  lowest  bidder.  But  with  the 
honor  of  keeping  the  key,  made  great  by  the  love  of  • 
the  people  for  the  building  for  which  they  had  labored  so 
hard,  went  certain  responsibilities:  the  keeper  "shall 
lock  and  unlock  said  house  every  Sunday  morning  & 
evening  if  needed,  and  at  all  times  when  thereto  request- 
ed by  the  authority  of  the  Town  .  .  .  also  sweep 
said  house  four  times  in  the  year",  and  in  event  of 
failure  to  do  this,  he  must  forfeit  fifty  cents  for  not 
handling  the  lock,  or  a  like  amount  for  not  wielding 
the  broom.  One  year,  the  keeper  had  to  "wash  the 
house".  The  "Keepers  of  the  Key",  with  the  amounts 
which  they  received  for  their  vear's  duties,  follow: 


24  The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 

1803  James  Marsh  $  2.50 

1804  Samuel  W.  Pulsipher  2.75 

1805  Samuel  W.  Pulsipher  2.25 

1806  Samuel  W.  Pulsipher  2.50 
■  1807  Abraham  Byington  3  .00 

1808  Caleb  Winn  1  .90 

1809  David  Pulsipher  2.50 

1810  Samuel  Taylor  2-75 

181 1  Abner  Wheelock  3.50 

181 2  Samuel  Taylor  2.75 

1813  S.  W.  Pulsipher  3  .00 

1814  Frederick  Reed  3  .00 

1815  John  Hall  3  .00 
1818  H.E.Day  2.00 
1821  Jonas  Phillips  2.00 
1823  Jonas  Phillips  1.99 

In  1807,  a  union  meeting  house  was  erected  at  Sax- 
tons  River,  and  from  this  date,  the  original  house  at 
Rockingham  is  spoken  of  as  the  "North  Meeting 
House". 

In  the  record  of  the  town  meeting  for  March  10, 
1816,  occurs  this  brief  but  illuminating  entry:  "The 
weather  being  cold,  Voted  to  adjourn  the  meeting  to 
Levi  Hoit  Hall".  The  lack  of  stoves,  or  other  heating 
apparatus,  must  have  been  severely  felt  by  the  small 
children  forced  to  sit  for  several  hours  each  Sabbath 
day  listening  to  long  sermons,  whose  import  was  way 
beyond  them.  The  elders  of  course  had  the  fire  of  the 
discourse,  or  the  heat  of  the  town  meeting  wrangle,  to 
assist  them  in  keeping  warm.  Even  Minister  Whiting 
had  to  confess  that  his  health  was  not  equal  to  preach- 
ing there  through  the  winter  of  1797-1798. 

In  accordance  with  the  custom  of  the  early  days,  the 
town  located  its  first  permanent  burying  ground,  or 
cemetery,  on  the  same  lot  as  its  Meeting  House,  on 
land  presented  to  the  town  in  1782,  by  four  citizens 
for  the  dual  purpose.*  For  nearly  one  hundred  years, 
it  was  the  town's  principal  burying  ground  and  inter- 

*Pagel8. 


The  Meeting  House  25 

ments  are  still  made  there  by  a  number  of  the  older 
families.  In  it  are  buried  many  of  the  prominent  citi- 
zens of  the  early  days,  their  resting  places  marked  by 
old  fashioned  slate  stones,  often  embellished  by  quaint 
ornamental  designs  and  epitaphs.  Many  of  these 
stones  have  attracted  much  attention  in  these  later 
years  from  the  oddness  of  their  inscriptions,  which 
often  give  a  vivid  insight  into  the  personal  life  and 
habits  of  the  person  in  whose  honor  they  were  erected. 
Possibly  the  two  most  interesting  inscriptions  in  the 
burying-ground  are  the  following: 

"In  Memory  of 
Miss   Eunice  Pain 
who  died  June  10,  1805 
in  the  sixteenth  year  of  her  age 

Behold  in  me  a  mournful  fate 

Two  lovers  were  sincere 
And  one  is  left  without  a  mate 

The  other  slumbers  here. 
Since  you  are  left  to  mourn 

To  you  these  words  I  say, 
Though  we  are  separated  here 

Must  meet  another  day 
And  reign  with  God  above 

Upon  the  blissful  shore 
And  reunite  our  love 

Where  friends  shall  part  no  more. " 

"In  Memory  of  Mr.  Josiah  White* 

who  Died  September  1,  1806, 

in  the  96th  year  of  his  age. 

The  descendants  of  Josiah  White  at  his  death. 
Children    15    Grand    Children    160    Grate    grand 
children  211.     Children  Deceased  2  Grand 
children  Deceased  26  grate  grand  children 
Deceased  35." 


♦Josiah  White,  the  same  man  whose  pew  marker  is  referred  to  on  page  55  and 
shown  in  a  picture  on  another  page. 


CHAPTER  II 


The  Church  Organization. 


THE  organization  of  the  First  Church  in  Rocking- 
ham and  the  beginning  of  regular  services  dates 
from  October  27,  1773,  though  the  town  had  hired 
ministers  to  preach  for  them  more  or  less  regularly 
before  that  date.  From  then  until  1809,  under  the 
guidance  of  Rev.  Samuel  Whiting,  and  supported  en- 
tirely by  the  town's  Minister  Tax,  the  church  was  a 
power  in  the  community.  After  a  lapse  of  nine  years, 
the  church  was  reorganized  in  181 8  as  the  Congrega- 
tional Church  of  Christ  in  Rockingham,  with  Rev. 
Elijah  Wollage  as  minister.  This  organization  was 
abandoned  in  1840,  owing  to  the  growth  of  other  por- 
tions of  the  town  at  the  expense  of  Rockingham  village. 

The  first  action  by  the  town  looking  to  hiring  a 
settled  town  minister,  or  to  the  establishment  of  a  town 
church,  was  taken  at  a  town  meeting  held  April  17, 
1769,  when  the  article  "To  see  if  the  Town  will  hier  a 
Minister  to  preach  with  them  the  Summer  Ensuing" 
was  "passed  in  ye  Negative". 

The  records  of  the  town  meetings  during  the  next 
few  years  show  that  at  least  occasional  preaching  ser- 
vices were  held  in  the  town  during  that  time,  though 
how  regularly  or  at  what  place  cannot  be  determined. 
The  following  extracts  from  the  records  of  town  meet- 
ings intimate  that  Rev.  Andrew  Gardner  served  the 
town  as  preacher  from  1769  until  about  December  16, 
1771;  and  Rev.  Elisha  Harding,  from  that  date  for  at 
least  part  of  the  time  until  1773;  and  that  they  were 
paid  for  their  services  by  the  town  itself: 


. 


The  Church  Organization  27 

(March,  1770)  "that  seventeen  bushels  of  Indian 
corn  be  delivered  to  the  Revd  Andrew  Gardner  by 
the  overseers  out  of  the  rent  that  Nathaniel  Davis 
owes  the  Town"  (for  the  Minister's  lot). 

(March  28,  1771)  "Voted  that  Mr.  Gardner 
have  the  use  of  ye  Ministers  Lot  ye  year  Ensuing." 

(September  7,  1771)  "Voted  that  the  town  alou 
Oliver  Lovell  and  Samll  Taylers  accompt  for  sup- 
porting ye  Revd  Mr.  Andrew  Gardner  and  his  wife 
from  ye  first  of  July  to  this  instant.  .  .  .  and 
voted  that  Messirus  Oliver  Lovell  and  Samll  Tayler 
be  ye  Commettee  to  support  Mr.  Gardner  and  his 
wife  ye  3  months  from  the  Date  hereof". 

(Decmber  16,  1771)    "Allowed  Oliver  Lovell.     . 
Samuel  Taylor.     .     .     .     Stoell  accompt. 
for  supporting  Mr.  Gardner  and  his  wife". 

(March  25,  1772)  "that  Moses  Wright  be  a 
Lowed  eight  shillings  bay  money.  .  .  for  Going 
after  Mr.  Hardin  when  he  preacht  in  Rockingham". 

There  is  no  evidence  that  there  was  any  church 
organization  at  this  time.  Rev.  Mr.  Gardner  and  Rev. 
Mr.  Harding  will  be  discussed  further  in  Chapter  III. 

The  First  Church  in  Rockingham  was  organized  and 
the  first  settled  minister,  Rev.  Samuel  Whiting,  ordained 
by  a  council  of  neighboring  churches,  convened  at 
Rockingham,  October  27,  1773. 

From  this  date,  the  story  of  the  church  is  very 
graphically  portrayed  in  a  manuscript  record  book  in 
the  handwriting  of  the  various  ministers  of  the  First 
Church,  containing  entries  covering  practically  every 
meeting  of  the  church  from  its  organization  in  1773  to 
its  dissolution  in  1840.  In  addition,  it  contains  the 
record  of  all  baptisms  and  marriages  performed  by  the 
ministers,  admissions  to  the  church,  and  an  incomplete 
record  of  deaths.  Many  of  these  are  of  great  value 
as  part  of  the  vital  statistics  of  Rockingham,  and 
have  been  transcribed  upon  the  card  records  of  the 
town.     The    book*   is   of   home    manufacture,    bound 

•See  illustration. 


28  The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 

together  with  a  strong  rawhide  cord  at  the  back,  and 
covered  with  a  home-made  sheepskin  with  a  flap  and 
string  to  tie.  It  has  stood  the  test  of  the  years  sur- 
prisingly well,  and  nearly  every  word  is  perfectly  legible. 
With  other  similar  mementos  of  the  old  church,  it  was 
saved  by  one  of  the  last  deacons  of  the  church,  Joel 
Brown,  and  cared  for  through  the  years  by  the  descend- 
ants of  David  Pulsipher,  one  of  the  original  members  of 
the  First  Church.  It  was  recently  presented  to  the 
Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House  Association*  by  Mrs. 
W.  H.  H.  Putnam  of  Springfield.  It  is  now  preserved 
by  the  librarian  of  that  Association,  in  the  vault  in 
the  Town  Clerk's  office  at  Bellows  Falls. 

In  1902,  Thomas  Bellows  Peck  of  Walpole,  one  of 
the  original  movers  in  this  Association,  copied  almost 
entire  the  contents  of  this  valuable  old  book,  and  had 
printed  a  limited  edition  of  two  hundred  copies,  thus 
making  them  readily  available  for  a  large  number  of 
people. 

The  first  entry  in  this  old  manuscript  book  is  the 
account,  in  the  handwriting  of  Rev.  Samuel  Whiting, 
of  the  council  called  to  organize  the  church  and  ordain 
him  as  its  pastor.  This  is  copied  entire  in  the  Appendix 
(III),  as  are  also  many  other  interesting  extracts  from 
the  records  of  both  the  town  and  the  First  Church, 
which  are  too  lengthy  for  these  pages. 

The  original  settlers  of  the  town  of  Rockingham 
came  largely  from  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut, 
where  the  religious  preferences  at  that  time  were  largely 
Congregational.  Accordingly,  it  is  natural  that  they 
should  conduct  the  affairs  of  their  church  along  lines 
closely  similar  to  those  of  the  Congregational  Church. 
This  similarity  is  made  more  striking  by  a  careful  study 
of  the  records  of  the  First  Church  in  Rockingham,  in 
which  it  is  evidenced  especially  by  calling  councils  of 


♦Chapter  V. 


V 


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The  Church  Organization  29 

neighboring  churches  for  the  settlement  or  dismissal  of 
pastors,  and  the  democratic  form  of  government 
throughout  the  entire  church.  Many  of  the  large 
Congregational  churches  throughout  New  England  were 
originally  organized  as  town  churches  and  were  sup- 
ported in  their  early  years  by  taxes  levied  on  the  inhabi- 
tants; only  assuming  the  name  "Congregational"  and 
taking  up  a  separate  organization  when  the  town  sup- 
port was  withdrawn  by  changes  in  the  laws  of  the 
State.  Accordingly,  while  the  term  Congregational  is 
not  used  in  the  records  of  this  church  until  1818,  it  may 
be  considered  as  an  early  church  of  that  denomination 
from  its  first  organization  in  1773. 

All  available  evidence  indicates  that  this  was  the 
eighth  Congregational  church  established  in  what  is 
now  the  State  of  Vermont,  and  that  only  five  more  were 
established  previous  to  the  Revolution.  The  list  of  the 
thirteen  with  dates  of  establishment  follows:* 


Bennington 1 762         Rockingham 1 773 

Newbury 1764         Thetford 1773 

Westminster 1767  West    Rutland .  .  .1773 

Windsor 1768         Newfane 1774 

Norwich 1770  Putney l77^ 

Brattleboro 1770         Marlboro 1776 

Guilford 1770 


Until  1778,  Mr.  Whiting's  time  was  divided  between 
the  churches  at  Rockingham  and  Chester,  but  "as  they 
had  never  practised  much  in  attending  at  each  others 
Communions  they  Considered  themselves  as  Separate 
&  Distinct  Churches.  The  Chh  in  Rockingham  how- 
ever soon  called  upon  Chester  members  &  they  by 
sending  us  a  Copy  of  their  Covenant  &  proceedings  gave 
us  full  satisfaction  that  they  were  duly  Organized  & 
regularly  separated  from  us  as  a  distinct  Chh." 


♦History  of  Vermont.  Natural,  Civil,  and  Statistical,  by  Zadok  Thompson.  XS4-. 


30  The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 

The  original  membership  of  the  church  numbered 
eighteen,  and  included  the  following: 

Samuel  Whiting  Anne  Larrabee 

David  Pulsipher  Mercy  Evans 

William  Simonds  Elias  Olcott 

Ebenezer  Fuller  Peter  Evans  Junr. 

Samuel  Larrabee  Asher  Evans 

Peter  Evans  Nathaniel  Davis 

Elizabeth  Pulsipher  Sibbel  Olcott 

Simonds  Mercy  Evans 

Mercy  Fuller  Mary  Evans 

An  alphabetical  list  of  all  members  of  the  church  of 
which  record  has  been  found,  is  printed  in  Appendix  I. 
This  list  is  divided  into  two  parts:  Members  between 
the  original  organization  of  the  church  in  1773,  and  the 
dismissal  of  Rev.  Samuel  Whiting  in  1809,  to  which 
are  added  lists  of  Chester  members  during  the  first  five 
years,  and  also  of  those  subscribing  to  the  Half  Way 
Covenant;  and  members  between  the  reorganization  in 
1818,  and  the  final  dissolution  of  the  church  in  1839. 
A  few  names  will  be  found  in  both  lists  and  they  are  so 
indicated. 

The  first  deacons  chosen  June  12,  1774,  were  Peter 
Evans  and  Elias  Olcott,  and  on  May  6,  1782,  Jacob 
Pease  was  chosen  as  a  third  deacon,  because  of  the 
fact  that  Deacon  Evans  was  becoming  too  aged  and 
infirm  to  "provide  for  &  serve  at  the  Table".  The 
names  of  later  deacons  have  not  been  found,  though  all 
three  of  these  men  died  within  a  few  years. 

The  first  law  "regulating  the  support  of  the  gospel" 
was  passed  by  the  General  Assembly  of  Vermont  at  its 
session  at  Newbury,  October  19,  1787.  It  provided 
that  the  town  churches  were  to  be  erected  and  supported 
by  direct  tax  upon  the  inhabitants  of  the  different  towns, 
the  tax  to  be  levied  on  the  grand  list  and  collected  in 
the  same  manner  as  taxes  for  other  purposes.     This  tax 


I 


The  Church  Organization 

is  usually  spoken  of  as  the  "Minister  Tax. 
added  the  following  proviso: 


The 


"Be  it  further  enacted  by  the  authorities  afore- 
said, That  every  person  being  of  adult  age,  shall  be 
considered  as  being  of  the  opinion  with  the  major 
part  of  the  inhabitants  of  such  town  or  parish  where 
he,  she,  or  they  dwell,  until  he,  she,  or  they  shall 
bring  a  certificate,  signed  by  some  minister  of  the 
gospel,  deacon  or  elder,  or  moderator  of  the  church 
or  congregation  to  which  he,  she  or  they,  pretend 
to  belong;  which  certificate  shall  make  known  the 
party  to  be  of  the  religious  sentiments  of  the  signer 
thereof;  and  until  such  certificate  shall  be  shown 
to  the  clerk  of  such  town  or  parish,  (who  shall  record 
the  same)  such  party  shall  be  subject  to  be  rated, 
and  pay  all  such  charges  with  the  major  part,  as  by 
law  shall  be  assessed  on  his,  her  or  their  poll  or 
ratable  estate." 

This  law  proved  the  source  of  much  contention,  and 
was  repealed  in  1807.  In  accordance  with  this  law  the 
church,  minister,  and  Meeting  House  in  Rockingham 
were  supported  until  about  18 10  by  a  tax  levied  by 
the  town  on  such  as  had  not  filed  with  the  town  clerk 
certificates  of  dissension.  Up  to  that  date,  there  is  no 
record  of  any  officers  or  committees  of  the  church  for 
other  than  purely  spiritual  and  disciplinary  purposes. 
The  records  of  the  town  clerk  contain  over  two  hundred 
and  fifty  certificates*  of  persons  claiming  exemption 
from  the  tax  because  of  other  religious  beliefs  between 
1783  and  1809,  when  they  cease  because  of  the  repeal 
of  the  law  making  them  advantageous.  The  early 
certificates  are  largely  that  the  subscriber  is  a  member 
of,  or  supports  some  other,  denomination;  while  the 
later  ones  are  that  he  simply  "disagrees".  1  he  fol- 
lowing are  fair  samples  of  the  two  types  of  certificates 
found  on  the  records: 


♦Appendix  II. 


32  The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 

Dudley  October  the  27th  1788 
This  may  certify  to  whom  it  may  Concern  that 
Elisher  Sabin  now  Living  in  Rockingham  is  a  mem- 
ber of  a  Baptist  Church  in  Dudley  in  full  fellowship 
and  good  Standing 

Signed  by  order  and  in  Behalf  of  the  Church 
John  Warren  Church  Clerk 
a  true  Coppey  of  the  above  Certificate  and  was 
Recorded  the  10th  Day  of  December  1788 

Pr  me  Jonth  Holten  T  clerk 

Rockingham  February  22d  1803 — I  the  Sub- 
scriber do  not  agree  in  the  Religious  Opinion  with  a 
Majority  of  the  Inhabitants  of  sd  Rockingham 

Hezekiah  Wood  Clark 
Recorded  by  Jona  Burt  Town  Clerk 

A  careful  search  of  the  records  of  both  the  town  and 
the  First  Church  fails  to  throw  any  definite  light  on  the 
amount  expended  by  the  town  in  support  of  the  Church, 
or  the  size  of  Mr.  Whiting's  salary.  A  letter  written 
by  Mr.  Whiting  to  the  Town  of  Rockingham,  January 
13,  1783,*  indicates  that  it  had  been  arranged  by  a 
committee  previously  and  that  it  was  to  be  paid  to  him 
annually.  At  Mr.  Whiting's  request,  the  towrn  deeded 
absolutely  to  him  and  his  heirs  all  the  land  allotted 
earlier  by  the  proprietors  to  the  Minister's  Right.f 
This  amounted  to  about  three  hundred  and  fifty  acres, 
and  probably  formed  no  small  part  of  his  salary.  In 
1807,  the  tax  lists  show  that  Mr.  Whiting  owned  four 
hundred  ninety-two  and  one-half  acres  and  was  the 
fourth  largest  land  owner  in  the  town;  while  between 
1796  and  1 81 5,  he  deeded  away  five  hundred  and  thirty 
acres  of  land  for  considerations  totalling  $6,664. 

In  1802,  the  records  show  that  the  town  owed  Air. 
Whiting  $166.40  "arrearages",  which  was  raised  by  an 
extra  assessment,  and  he  was  paid  in  full  soon  after. 
In  1809,  his  salary  was  evidently  again  in  arrears,  and 

♦Appendix III:  B. 

tChapter  I,  p.  16  and  Appendix  III:  B. 


The    Church    Organization  33 

was  paid.  At  this  time,  the  sum  of  $200  was  exempted 
from  his  grand  list  for  the  balance  of  his  life,  "since  for 
a  long  time  he  had  been  subjected  to  pay  taxes,  a  thing 
no  other  clergyman  in  the  state  had  done",  and  "for  a 
long  time  his  salary  had  been  reduced  nearly  one-half". 

In  the  records  of  the  March,  1807,  town  meeting 
occurs  the  following:  "By  Tax  called  Ministers  Tax 
&  Rate  Bill  made  on  the  same.  .  .  .  #129.82"; 
while  in  the  records  of  a  similar  meeting  in  1808,  "Tax 
assessed  on  the  persons  who  are  not  dissenters  on  the 
list  of  1807,  being  six  and  one-half  mills  on  the  dollar, 
#67.38". 

The  Church  Records  show  that  the  second  settled 
minister,  Rev.  Elijah  Wollage,  in  181 8,  "accepted  the 
call  on  a  salary  of  #425.00  per  annum  ". 

From  the  time  of  its  organization  in  1773,  with 
eighteen  original  members,  the  church  grew  steadily 
at  the  rate  of  four  to  eight  new  members  each  year, 
until  about  1786.  Aside  from  eleven  Chester  members, 
the  names  of  seventy  persons  have  been  found  who  had 
joined  up  to  this  time,  and  four  who  had  been  dismissed. 
From  this  time  on,  the  new  memberships  decrease 
steadily,  and  up  to  181 1,  a  total  of  only  ninety-six 
names  are  found.* 

In  October,  1797,  Air.  Whiting,  evidently  discour- 
aged at  the  lack  of  support  given  the  "preaching",  and 
also  in  poor  health,  wrote  as  follows  to  his  congregation  :f 

"I  would  mention  to  the  Congregation  that  it  is 
twenty  four  years  since  my  being  a  Minister  here 
the  27th  of  October  next,  next  Sabbath  on  which  I 
expect  to  exchange  will  be  the  last  Sabbath  of  the 
year  &  whereas  my  health  is  such  that  I  cant  preach 
in  this  meeting  house  during  the  Winter  season, 
And  as  a  very  Considerable  part  of  those  who  at- 
tend upon  publick  Worship  are  Women  &  Children 

♦Appendix  I,  a  complete  list  of  all  members  of  the  church. 
tRecords  of  First  Church. 


34 


The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 


&  such  as  live  at  a  distance  &  cant  conveniently 
attend,  I  think  it  is  my  Duty  to  relinquish  my 
Salary  &  desist  from  all  ministerial  Services  during 
the  Winter  season.  I  expect  you  will  be  Supply'd 
next  Sabbath  with  preaching,  and  I  would  further 
add  that  I  do  not  leave  off  preaching  on  account  of 
any  disinclination  to  the  business  or  disaffection  to 
the  People,  but  on  account  of  the  peculiar  Situation 
&.  Circumstances  of  the  Town." 


The  following  spring,  the  resumption  of  the  services 
was  discussed,  and  Mr.  Whiting  addressed  a  letter  to 
his  congregation  in  which  he  reviews  very  interestingly 
the  history  of  the  church  and  the  causes  for  the  present 
lack  of  support,  ascribing  it  largely  to  the  great  drain 
upon  the  time  and  pocketbooks  of  the  members  of  the 
congregation,  incident  to  organizing  the  State  and 
nation.* 

Church  services  were  resumed  that  spring,  but 
troubles  for  the  church  and  minister  evidently  increased 
steadily  from  this  time  on.  In  September,  1794,  Mr. 
Whiting  considered  resigning  from  the  ministry,  but  at 
the  meeting  of  the  church  called  in  regard  to  it,  "It  was 
generally  thought  best  to  make  some  further  Trial,  to 
see  if  unhappy  prejudice  might  not  more  wear  away, 
&  a  Spirit  of  Religion,  of  Charity  &  for  Supporting 
Gospel  Order  &  Worship,  more  take  place". 

In  April,  1797,  a  letter  was  addressed  to  the  select- 
men by  five  citizens  (of  whom  only  one  was  a  member 
of  the  church),  asking  them  to  call  a  meeting  of  the 
congregation  to  consider  Mr.  Whiting's  "proceedings 
and  non-performance  of  Duty".  The  meeting  was 
called  by  the  selectmen  and  a  committee  chosen  to 
confer  with  Mr.  Whiting  and  make  report  at  a  later 
meeting.  The  committee  did  their  work  so  well  that 
the  record  of  the  adjourned  meeting  simply  states 
after  some  conversation  the  meeting  was  dissolved".! 

♦Appendix  III:  C. 
t Appendix  III:  D. 


The  Church  Organization 


35 


The  Meeting  House,  the  walls  of  which  were  raised 
in  1787,  had  not  yet  been  completed,  though  a  laps< 
twelve  years  had  gone  by,  but  it  was  finally  finished  in 
1 801.*  It  is  probable  that  this  delay  and  the  lack  of 
support  of  the  church  during  this  period  is  not  due  so 
much  to  lack  of  interest  as  to  the  fact  that  the  citizens 
were  harrassed  on  every  side  by  the  expenses  and 
troubles  incidental  to  the  Revolutionary  War  and  the 
organization  of  a  new  civil  government. 

The  Records  of  the  First  Church  contain  no  entries 
from  March,  1798,  to  February,  1809;  nor  does  a  care- 
ful search  of  the  town  records  shed  much  light  on  what 
went  on  in  this  period.  Under  date  of  February  24, 
1809,  Mr.  Whiting  wrote  the  selectmen  asking  that  he 
be  dismissed  from  the  ministry  of  the  town  church, 
giving  as  a  reason  his  greatly  impaired  health  which 
precluded  his  further  usefulness.  He  urged  that  some 
formality  attend  his  dismissal,  and  reviewed  touchingly 
his  long  service  of  thirty-six  years  and  all  the  changes 
this  time  had  brought  both  in  his  congregation  and  in 
the  country.  The  town,  after  appointing  a  committee 
to  discuss  the  matter  with  Mr.  Whiting,  voted  April 
10,  1809,  to  unite  with  the  church  in  calling  a  council 
to  dismiss  him;  and  further  voted  to  exempt  #200 from 
his  grand  list  for  the  balance  of  his  life.  Mr.  Whiting 
was  dismissed  by  a  council  convened  at  Rockingham, 
May  18,  1809,  thus  ending  a  long  and  creditable  service 
for  the  people  of  Rockingham.  So  much  light  is  thrown 
on  the  personnel  of  the  people  and  the  conditions  under 
which  they  were  laboring,  by  the  complete  records  of 
the  letters  and  meetings  of  both  the  church  and  the 
town,  leading  to  the  dismissal  of  Mr.  Whiting,  that  they 
are  copied  entire  in  the  Appendix  (III :  E). 

During  the  next  nine  years,  or  until  181 8,  little 
definite  information  can  be  found  regarding  the  history 


<£: 


♦Chapter  I. 


36  The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 

of  the  church.  It  is  probable  that  services  were  held 
more  or  less  regularly,  but  with   no  settled  minister. 

Interest  apparently  was  at  a  low  ebb,  and  the  organ- 
ization of  churches  of  the  various  denominations  in 
other  parts  of  the  town,  which  were  growing  more 
rapidly  than  Rockingham  village,  made  it  increasingly 
difficult  to  keep  up  the  town  church. 

Up  to  this  time,  five  other  church  organizations  had 
been  formed  in  Rockingham,  as  follows:  1786,  a  Baptist 
Church  at  Rockingham,  and  1790,  a  Universalist  Church 
at  Rockingham;  (both  of  these  organizations  used  the 
town  Meeting  House  for  their  services  for  a  number 
of  years,  and  then  died  a  natural  death);  1798,  the 
"Protestant  Episcopal  Society  of  Rockingham",  which 
also  used  the  old  Meeting  House  until  1817,  when  it 
removed  to  Bellows  Falls,  and  is  still  existent  under 
the  name  "Immanuel  Church  of  Bellows  Falls";  1812, 
"The  Baptist  Church  of  Christ  in  Westminster  and 
Rockingham",  now  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Saxtons 
River.  About  1803,  regular  meetings  were  started  in 
this  town  by  the  Methodist  denomination,  later  grow- 
ing into  the  Methodist  Church  now  existent  at  Bellows 
Falls.  In  addition  to  these,  the  churches  organized 
at  Chester  in  the  early  days  undoubtedly  drew  from 
the  support  of  the  church  at  Rockingham. 

In  July,  1818,  Rev.  Elijah  Wollage  came  to  Rock- 
ingham to  supply  the  pulpit  in  the  Meeting  House  for 
four  months.  At  the  end  of  this  period,  a  call  was  ex- 
tended to  him  to  become  their  pastor  for  a  term  of  four 
years.  Little  could  be  found  of  the  original  church  of 
Rev.  Samuel  Whiting,  the  old  members  having  largely 
died,  left  town,  or  joined  some  other  denomination. 
Accordingly  a  new  church  was  organized  November  5, 
1 81 8,  with  seven  members,  and  under  Mr.  Wollage 
as  pastor,  declared  by  the  council  to  be  the  "Congre- 
gational Church  of  Christ  in  Rockingham".* 

♦Appendix  III:  P. 


The  Church  Organization  37 

After  the  repeal,  in  1807,  of  the  "Law  regulating  the 
support  of  the  gospel",  it  is  probable  that  the  control 
of  the  temporal  affairs  of  the  First  Church  were  turned 
over  by  the  town  to  the  church  society  itself.  In  the 
record  of  the  reorganization  of  the  church  in  1818,  the 
phrase  "the  Society  gave  him  a  call  to  preach  with 
them  four  years",  marks  the  first  evidence  of  such 
action  of  a  temporal  nature  other  than  by  the  town. 
The  adoption  of  the  word  "Congregational"  at  this 
time,  as  witnessed  by  the  last  phrase  of  the  record  of 
the  reorganization,  and  by  continual  later  records  of 
similar  nature,  also  marks  a  new  epoch  in  the  life  of 
the  church.  Thus  we  may  regard  the  church  organiza- 
tion formed  at  this  time  as  a  distinct  Congregational 
Church,  not  in  any  way  connected  with  or  supported 
by  the  town,  though  a  natural  outgrowth  in  a  reorgan- 
ized form  of  the  original  town  church. 

The  church,  as  thus  reorganized,  grew  steadily,  the 
records  showing  the  following  as  the  membership  on 
the  dates  given:  June  1,  1820,  forty-five;  June,  1821, 
forty-eight;  January,  1822,  fifty. 

Little  account  is  given  of  the  petty  bickerings  so 
constant  under  Mr.  Whiting;  but  more  attention  was 
evidently  paid  to  the  exact  wording  of  the  creed  and 
covenants. 

Mr.  Wollage  probably  remained  as  pastor  for  the 
full  four  years,  or  until  July  1,  1822.  After  he  left, 
there  is  no  record  of  any  settled  minister  until  1836, 
and  it  is  not  known  who  supplied.  The  church  organ- 
ization was  evidently  kept  up,  as  there  are  occasional 
entries  of  new  members,  or  old  members  dismissed 
from  the  church.  The  records  of  the  "Consociation  in 
Windham  County"  show  that  there  were  forty-four 
members  of  this  church  in  1824.  It  is  also  probable 
that  church  services  were  held  more  or  less  regularly 
during  this  interim. 

On  January  3,   1837,  Rev.  Samuel  Mason  was  or- 


38  The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 

dained  as  pastor,*  after  having  supplied  the  pulpit  for 
some  months.  His  pastorate  was  beset  by  many  trials 
and  dissensions,  and  after  only  about  eighteen  months, 
he  was  dismissed  by  a  council  convened  August  22, 
1838.  The  account  of  his  dismissal  in  the  Records 
of  the  First  Church  absolved  Mr.  Mason  from  any 
blame  in  the  matter  and  intimated  that  it  might  be 
impracticable  to  ever  settle  another  pastor. f 

As  foretold  in  the  minutes  of  the  council  of  dis- 
missal, this  marks  practically  the  end  of  the  church 
organization  and  the  regular  use  of  the  Meeting  House 
for  church  purposes.  Several  records  appear  in  the 
book  in  1838  and  1839,  signed  by  "Broughton  White, 
Moderator".  It  is  inferred  that  he  was  settled,  at 
least  temporarily,  over  the  church,  though  the  only 
definite  evidence  of  this  fact  in  addition  to  his  signature 
on  the  church  records  is  the  following  entry: 

1838  At  a  communion  season  Brother  Joel 
Brown  was  received  to  the  communion  &  fellowship 
of  this  chh  by  profession. 

On  the  previs  preparatory  Lecture  day  was 
chosen  Moderator. 

B.     White. 

He  was  an  aged  man  and  soon  after  his  death,  which 
occurred  in  1839,  the  church  organization  fell  to  pieces, 
and  has  never  been  revived.  The  last  record  found  of 
any  church  organization  is  the  presence  of  "Bro.  Pul- 
sipher and  Bro.  Brown"  as  delegates  to  the  Consocia- 
tion in  Windham  County  on  September  16,  1840.  A 
further  entry  in  the  records  of  this  meeting  is  as  follows: 
"Memorials  were  presented  by  (aggrieved?)  members 
of  the  Church  in  Rockingham  and  referred  to  the 
Standing  Committee".  The  Consociation  was  aban- 
doned soon  after  this  and  no  further  action  regarding  it 
is  recorded. 


♦Appendix  III:  G. 
t Appendix  III:  H. 


LEL^. 


z 


2 


The  Church  Organization  39 

Many  entries  occur  in  the  Records  of  the  First 
Church  showing  that  personal  disputes  were  taken  up 
by  the  church  body  as  a  whole,  and  often  a  satisfactory 
settlement  effected  by  this  means.  If  resource  to  this 
was  of  no  avail,  in  a  few  cases  the  question  under  dis- 
pute was  let  out  to  arbitration  by  parties  from  neigh- 
boring churches,  or  even  a  council  of  neighboring 
churches  called  to  adjust  the  matter.  A  few  extracts 
from  the  Records  will  serve  as  examples: 

"By  the  desire  of  Brother  Asher  Evans  I  in- 
form'd  the  Chh  &  Congregation  of  his  Sorrow  for 
his  foolish  &  Inconsiderate  Conduct  with  Xathl 
Bennett.     Voted  Satisfactory." 

"Chh  tarried  after  Publick  Worship,  read  Jona- 
than Burrs  Complaint  against  Nathaniel  Davis  & 
Chose  Peter  Evans  &  Elias  Olcott  to  meet  with 
them  &  endeavour  to  reconcile  the  Difficulties  be- 
tween them." 

"Chh  tarried  after  Publick  Worship  When  Peter 
Evans  Junr  &  Elias  Olcott  upon  Brother  Davis 
Saying  that  wherein  he  had  broke  the  good  Rules 
of  the  Chh  he  was  sorry  for  it,  Said  it  was  to  the 
same  purport  to  what  they  had  Advis'd  to  &  Bro- 
ther Burr  was  satisfied  with,  and  he  being  Satisfied 
withdrew  his  Complaint  &  both  Parties  agreed  not 
to  mention  again  the  old  Story  wherein  they  differd 
&  which  was  the  foundation  of  the  Dispute." 

Nathaniel  Davis  apparently  had  continual  difficulty 
in  getting  along  with  several  members  of  the  church, 
and  was  the  subject  of  numerous  church  meetings. 
The  records  show  that  after  a  number  of  disputes  in 
which  he  was  the  chief  actor,  on  May  19,  1782,  the 
church  voted  to  "send  this  Admonition  to  Brother 
Nathaniel  Davis  in  the  Name  of  the  Chh".  September 
1,  they  voted  to  leave  the  question  to  the  Ministerial 
Association  for  settlement,  but  the  ministers  "declined  ., . 
attending  to  the  Matter  or  giving  their  Advice". 
January  26,  1783,  the  church  "Voted  that  the  Pastoi 


4° 


The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 


■> 


send  this  Second  Admonition  to  Mr.  Davis  in  the 
Name  of  the  Chh".  This  was  evidently  unsatisfactory 
in  adjusting  the  matter,  for  May  21,  1783,  the  church 
voted  to  call  a  council  "to  hear  &  advise  as  to  his 
Matter  of  grievance".  A  committee  of  six  members 
were  appointed  to  lay  the  matter  before  a  council 
composed  of  delegates  from  the  churches  at  Charles- 
town,  Walpole,  and  Westminster.  The  matter  was 
apparently  finally  settled  in  this  manner,  since  under 
date  of  July  6,  this  entry  is  found : 

"After  Publick  Worship  Brother  Nathaniel 
Davis  desiring  the  Congregation  to  Stop,  read  to 
them  a  paper  in  these  Words  or  nearly.  If  I  have 
said  anything  that  has  given  just  Occasion  of  Of- 
fence to  any  in  this  Chh  I  am  sorrv  for  it. " 

This  is  the  last  record  of  any  trouble  with  Brother 
Davis. 

A  careful  study  of  the  Records  of  the  First  Church 
yields  little  definite  information  regarding  the  exact 
covenant  or  platform  of  religious  beliefs  on  which  it 
was  founded,  previous  to  the  reorganization  in  181 8. 
Indirect  evidence  shows  that  there  was  a  written 
covenant,  but  unfortunately  it  was  not  copied  into  the 
Records.  The  principal  entries  bearing  in  any  way  on 
these  questions  are  copied  into  the   Appendix  (III: I). 

Only  two  questions  are  really  mentioned,  and  they 
are  more  or  less  interlocking:  Baptism  and  the  "Half 
Way  Covenant"  so-called.  In  1778,  the  church  re- 
fused to  adopt  the  "Half  Way  Covenant"  which 
"admits  persons  to  Priveledges  &  taken  under  the 
Watch  &  Care  of  the  Chh  without  promising  an  Attend- 
ance on  the  Lord's  Table".  Finally,  on  June  15,  1784, 
this  covenant  was  adopted  after  some  weeks  of  discus- 
sion and  it  is  copied  entire  in  the  appendix.*  A  list  of 
twenty-one  people  admitted  to  "Priveledges"  under 
this  covenant  is  given  in  the  appendix. f     It  is  probable 

♦Appendix  III:  I. 
tAppendixI. 


The  Church  Organization  41 

that  this  list  is  not  complete,  since  entries  are  only- 
found  between  the  years  1795  and  1803. 

The  church  evidently  did  not  allow  the  baptism 
of  children  whose  parents  were  not  members  of  the 
church  previous  to  this  time;  believed  strongly  in  infant 
baptism;  and  required  as  a  condition  of  church  member- 
ship that  a  person  must  promise  an  "Attendance  on 
the  Lord's  Table". 

The  Confession  of  Faith  and  Covenant  subscribed 
to  by  the  members  at  the  time  of  the  reorganization,  in 
1 81 8,  is  happily  given  in  the  Records,  as  are  also  more 
detailed  statements  agreed  to  November  11,  1819. 
These  latter  renounce  entirely  the  "Half  Way  Cov- 
enant". Both  of  these  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix 
(HI:  J). 

May  11,  1837,  the  church  adopted  the  "Articles  of 
faith  and  covenant,  approved  by  the  Black  River 
association". 

The  church  participated  by  its  pastor  and  delegates 
in  councils  of  ordination  or  organization,  or  to  settle 
especial  difficulties,  of  other  churches  in  the  surround- 
ing country.  A  list  of  those  of  which  records  have  been 
found  may  serve  to  throw  light  on  the  history  of  other 
early  town  or  Congregational  Churches.  The  dates 
given  are  those  of  the  appointing  of  delegates: 

June  26,  1774,  Newfane,  Ordination  and  probably 

organization. 
June  26,  1774,  Westminster,  Ordination. 
October  6,  1776,  Putney,  "To  assist  in  gathering  a 

Chh  &  Installing  a  Minister". 
October  13,  1778,  Westminster,  Probably  to  settle 

some  church  difficulty. 
Dec.  11,  1781,  Cornish,  "Ecclesiastical  Council''. 
Mar.  26,   1785,  Westminster,  "Council". 
Nov.  11,  1787,  Reading,  "Ordination  of  Mr.  Sar- 

geants  there". 
Nov.  2,   1788,  Thomlinson  (Grafton),  "Ordination 

of  Mr.  Hall". 


The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 

June  6,  1789,  Windsor,  "  Ordination  of  Mr.  Shuttles- 
worth"  over  "Christian  Catholic  Society". 

June  26,  1791,  Woodstock,  "To  hear  their  Difficul- 
ties and  Consult  thereon". 

Oct.  25,  1795,  W7ardsborough,  "Ordination  there 
Nov.  4th". 

Nov.  11,  1837,  Chester,  "Installation  of  Br.  S.  H. 
Hodges"  Nov.  15. 

Sept.  25,  1839,  Saxtons  River,  Dismiss  Rev.  Nelson 
Barber  Sept.  26. 

In  March,  1819,  "all  necessary  furniture  for  the 
Sacramental  Table"  was  purchased  by  popular  sub- 
scription. The  list  of  those  contributing  contains 
forty-four  names,  only  seventeen  of  which  have  been 
found  on  the  Records  of  the  First  Church  as  members. 
The  remaining  twenty-seven  are  listed  in  the  appendix, 
at  the  close  of  the  list  of  members  of  the  church,*  since 
they  furnish  additional  evidence  of  the  names  of  those 
interested  in  the  church  at  that  time.  At  the  end  of 
the  subscription  list  in  the  Records  of  the  First  Church 
is  the  following: 

"In  addition  to  the  foregoing,  the  Female  Socie- 
ty advanced  three  Dollars  and  purchased  the  Bap- 
tismal Bason.  Mrs.  Eunice  Richards  gave  the 
Table  cloth  and  two  small  Napkins  or  towels.  The 
whole  furniture,  in  addition  to  the  foregoing,  con- 
sists of  two  large  Tankard  Pots,  four  Cups,  two 
with  handles,  and  two  small  Platters 

Capt.  Thomas  Gould  procured  the  subscrip- 
tions, collected  and  paid  over  the  same  to  Mr. 
Royal  Earl". 

The  baptismal  bowl  was  broken  at  the  time  the  last 
member  was  taken  into  the  church,  and  it  was  con- 
sidered at  the  time  a  "forerunner  of  trouble"  for  the 
church.  The  Communion  service,  the  mended  bap- 
tismal bowl,  one  napkin,  and  the  table  cloth  were 
preserved   with   the   Records  of  the   First   Church   in 


*  Appendix  I. 


^5H5^^J 

■          -« 

^B       •'^B^ 

^  ^r   ^ 

t^#TM 

1  I 

■ 

COMMUNION    CUPS    A.ND    LINEN    USED    IX    THE    OLD 

MEETING    HOUSE 


1 

1 

ase:; 

THE    HIGH     PULPIT    AND    SOUNDING     HOARD 


The  Church  Organization 


43 


Rockingham,  by  the  descendants  of  David  Pulsipher 
ist,  and  his  wife,  Elizabeth.  They  were  for  many 
years  in  the  possession  of  Mrs.  W.  H.  H.  Putnam  of 
Springfield,  one  of  these  descendants.  The  Communion 
service  was  destroyed  in  a  fire  there  in  1898,  while  the 
linen*  and  the  record  book  have  been  recently  pre- 
sented to  the  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House  Associa- 
tion. In  addition  to  these,  two  old  pewter  cups  with- 
out handlesf  were  recently  found  in  the  possession  of 
J.  B.  Divoll  at  Rockingham  village.  They  are  entirely 
different  from  the  service  purchased  in  1819,  though 
they  were  probably  used  at  some  time  on  the  Com- 
munion Table  of  the  First  Church.  They  have  also 
been  acquired  by  the  Association  and  with  the  linen 
are  kept  in  the  Old  Meeting  House. 

June  24,  1820,  the  church  became  a  member  of  the 
"Consociation  in  Windham  County",  an  organization 
of  the  Congregational  Churches  formed  October  3, 
1797,  at  Brattleboro,  Vt. 

♦Appendix  I. 

tThe  communion  cups  and  linen  are  shown  in  the  illustration  on  the  opposite  page. 
The  linen,  yellowed  with  age,  bears  the  inscriptions  "Jesus  is  the  bread  of  life  "and 
"The  blood  of  Jesus  is  drink  indeed."  written  with  ink  and  still  legible  despite  the 
passage  of  the  years. 


CHAPTER   III 

The  Minister 

AS  told  in  detail  in  Chapter  II,  the  Town  of  Rock- 
ingham had  two  preachers  previous  to  the  organ- 
ization of  the  church:  Rev.  Andrew  Gardner  from  1769 
to  December,  1771;  and  Rev.  Elisha  Harding,  for  at 
least  part  of  the  time  between  1771  and  1773;  and  four 
settled  ministers  over  the  church- — Rev.  Samuel  Whit- 
ing, from  the  organization  of  the  church,  October  27, 
1773,  until  May  18,  1809;  Rev.  Elijah  Wollage,  from 
the  reorganization  of  the  church,  November  5,  1818, 
probably  until  July  1,  1822;  Rev.  Samuel  Mason,  from 
January  3,  1837,  until  August  22,  1838;  and  Rev. 
Broughton  White  during  1839.  Each  of  these  men 
probably  left  his  mark  on  the  people  of  the  town 
of  Rockingham,  but  especially  must  this  have  been 
true  of  Rev.  Samuel  Whiting,  who  for  thirty-six  years, 
through  the  critical  time  during  and  after  the  Revolu- 
tion, was  the  town's  leader  in  spiritual  affairs,  and,  we 
may  well  believe,  of  great  influence  as  a  wise  counsellor 
in  things  temporal.  It  is  well  that  we  should  consider 
what  kind  of  men  these  were. 

Rev.  Andrew  Gardner*  was  one  of  the  original 
grantees  of  the  town  of  Rockingham,  coming  here  from 
Fort  Dummer  and  other  points  in  the  lower  valley; 
before  that,  in  1746,  he  was  in  Charlestown,  N.  H.  In 
addition  to  being  a  minister  of  the  gospel,  he  was  a 
skilled  physician  and  surgeon,  and  served  the  various 
settlements  in  the  dual  capacity.     After  leaving  here, 

♦Much  of  the  material  for  these  brief  sketches  of  the  ministers  has  been  obtained 
from  Thomas  Bellows  Peck's  Historical  Introduction  to  his  reprint  of  the  Records  of 
the  First  Church,  pp.  IX  to  XI,  and  the  History  of  the  Town  of  Rockingham,  Chaps. 
XI  and  XII,  and  pp.  786-788. 


The   Minister  45 

where  he  had  made  his  home  for  some  years,  he  went 
to  Bath,  N.  1 1.  Thus  for  many  years  he  was  intimately 
connected  with  the  various  settlements  up  and  down 
the  Connecticut  Valley,  and  took  much  interest  in 
their  affairs,  both  spiritual  and  temporal. 

Rev.  Elisha  Harding  probably  never  lived  in  the 
town  of  Rockingham,  though  he  is  known  to  have  come 
into  this  vicinity  as  early  as  1755.  At  the  time  of  his 
serving  as  preacher  here,  he  was  chaplain  in  the  large 
family  of  Col.  Benjamin  Bellows  at  Walpole,  K.  H., 
and  was  evidently  conveyed  back  and  forth  when 
preaching  at  Rockingham.* 

Rev.  Samuel  Whiting,  the  "First  Settled  Minister" 
of  the  town  of  Rockingham,  came  to  the  town  as  a 
young  man  of  only  twenty-three  years,  and  spent  his 
entire  mature  life  here,  dying  at  the  "  Minister's  House  " 
in  his  seventieth  year.  Of  the  forty-five  years  he 
spent  in  town,  for  thirty-six  he  was  the  town's  minister. 
This  period  covered  the  American  Revolution  and  the 
period  of  construction  and  growth  of  the  State  of  Ver- 
mont. It  was  unquestionably  the  most  critical  era 
in  the  history  of  the  State,  or  of  the  towns  of  which  it  is 
composed.  Throughout  this  period,  his  kindly  person- 
ality and  broad  judgment  stamped  itself  indelibly  upon 
the  people  of  the  town  in  which  he  was  both  a  respected 
citizen  and  an  honored  official;  and  through  them,  had 
its  effect  in  the  formation  of  the  infant  State. 

In  the  ministry,  he  was  a  leader  throughout  the 
scattered  settlements  in  this  part  of  Vermont  and  New 
Hampshire,  and  often  participated  in  councils  to  settle 
or  dismiss  ministers,  or  to  adjust  church  difficulties. 
At  his  home,  in  June,  1796,  was  held  the  first  meeting 
of  the  General  Convention  of  Congregational  Churches 
of  Vermont,  a  work  in  which  he  took  a  prominent  part, 
as  he  also  did  in  its  outgrowth,  the  Vermont  Missionary 

•Chapter  II,  p.  27. 


46 


The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 


Society.  He  was  one  of  the  ministers  forming  the 
"Association  of  Ministers  of  the  Gospel  of  the  County 
of  Cumberland  (Windham),  in  the  state  of  New  York",* 
formed  in  Brattleboro,  October  17,  1775.  It  must  not 
be  overlooked  that  in  those  early  days,  a  minister 
occupied  an  even  higher  position  in  the  community 
than  he  does  today,  when  educated  men  are  so  much 
more  common.  At  the  time  of  his  resigning  the  minis- 
try over  the  First  Church,  he  was  the  oldest  minister  in 
Vermont  in  point  of  service. 

Mr.  Whiting  was,  moreover,  a  business  man,  a 
thing  not  always  to  be  found  in  a  minister  even  in  these 
keener  days.  While  his  salary  was  probably  very 
small,  he  obtained  from  the  town  concessions  of  land 
which  enabled  him  to  live  the  nine  years  after  his 
resignation,  in  comparative  peace  and  comfort  for 
those  days.  As  has  been  mentioned  in  Chapter  I,  he 
disposed  of  between  six  and  seven  thousand  dollars 
worth  of  property  in  a  comparatively  short  period  of 
time,  and  still  had  valuable  properties  left. 

While  none  of  his  sermons  have  come  down  to  us, 
side  lights  which  we  have  on  the  man  indicate  that  he 
was  bright  and  keen,  and  probably  gave  his  hearers  the 
best  to  be  had.  A  legend  handed  down  from  genera- 
tion to  generation  has  it  that  one  of  his  parishioners 
once  complained  to  him  that  he  was  giving  them  "poor 
preaching, — very  poor  preaching",  to  which  Mr. 
Whiting  replied,  "You  must  not  forget  that  I  receive 
poor  pay, — very  poor  pay".  Possibly  this  was  during 
one  of  the  many  periods  when  his  pay  was  a  year  or  so 
in  arrears. 

The  liberality  of  his  religious  views  may  be  judged 
from  the  fact  that  at  one  time  he  is  said  to  have  chosen 
a  young  Baptist  student  to  assist  him  in  his  church 
work  for  a  while.  It  is  also  related  that  after  resigning 
the  ministry,   he  habitually  attended  church  services 


•Thompson's  Vermont,  pp.  177,  178;  and  Records  of  Windham  Association  of 
Congregational  Ministers. 


THE    MINISTER  S    HOUSE 


HEAVY  ROOF  TIMBERS   IX  THE   ATTIC  OF  THE   Ml  ETING 

HOUSE 


The  Minister 

at  the  old  church,  paying  no  attention  to  what  denomi- 
nation they  might  happen  to  be.  Winn  asked  the 
reason  for  his  so  doing,  he  replied,  "They  may  be  right 
and  I  wrong".  Such  liberality  of  religious  views  was 
very  rare  in  those  days. 

Soon  after  coming  to  Rockingham,  the-  Rev.  Samuel 
Whiting  built  for  himself  a  home,  known  for  mam 
years  as  the  "Minister's  House".  He  located  it  on 
land  given  to  him  by  the  town  as  part  of  the  Minister's 
Right,  probably  on  Lot  1 1  of  Range  6.  The  house  is 
still  standing  about  a  mile  north  of  Rockingham  village 
on  the  road  to  Chester.  It  is  known  as  the  Stowell 
place  and  is  now  owned  by  Mortimer  J.  Granfield. 

It  is  a  beautiful  example  of  colonial  architecture, 
and,  like  the  old  Meeting  House,  has  stood  for  much 
in  the  history  of  the  town.  In  the  olden  days,  the 
Minister's  House  was  a  semi-public  building,  used  for 
smaller  meetings  of  all  kinds.  In  Mr.  Whiting's  office, 
attached  to  the  rear  of  the  building  (see  illustration  of 
the  minister's  house),  was  held  the  first  General  Conven- 
tion of  Congregational  Churches  of  the  State  of  Ver- 
mont, in  June,  1796;  here  also  were  held  meetings  of 
both  the  Consociation  in  Windham  County,  and  the 
Windham  Association  of  Ministers.  Here  were  solem- 
nized most  of  the  marriage  ceremonies  performed  by 
Mr.  Whiting,  as  recorded  in  the  Records  of  the  First 
Church;  and  at  his  table  in  this  small  room  was  written 
year  after  year  the  story  of  the  growth  and  later  troubles 
of  his  church  as  they  have  come  down  to  us  in  those 
Records. 

Mr.  Whiting  continued  to  occupy  the  house  after 
his  dismissal  from  the  ministry,  and  there  died  in  1819. 

Rev.  Samuel  Whiting*  was  born  in  Wrentham, 
Mass.,  January  28,  1750;  the  son  of  Joseph  Whiting  of 
Franklin,    Mass.,    who    traced    his    ancestry    back    to 


*History  of  Rockingham,  pp.  786- 7S8. 


48  The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 

Nathaniel  Whiting,  who  was  in  Dedham,  Mass.,  in  1641, 
and  married  Hannah  Dwight  in  1643.  Mr.  Whiting 
graduated  from  Harvard  College  in  1769;  received  the 
degree  of  A.  M.  from  Yale  in  1772;  was  ordained  pastor 
of  the  First  Church  in  Rockingham,  October  27,  1773, 
becoming  their  first  settled  minister;  dismissed  from 
the  church  at  his  own  request,  May  18,  1809,  after 
thirty-six  years  of  strenuous  labor  which  had  left  him 
in  poor  health;  and  resided  in  the  old  Minister's  House 
until  his  death,  which  occurred  May  16,  1819.  He 
married,  May  24,  1774,  Mary  Goldsbury  of  Warwick, 
Mass.,  who  died  August  7,  1799.  Both  are  buried  in 
the  old  burying  ground  which  surrounds  the  meeting 
house  for  which  they  gave  so  generously  of  themselves. 
They  had  nine  children,  of  whom  only  two  survived 
their  father:  John  Goldsbury,  who  married  first  Phoebe 
Locke  of  Saxtons  River,  and  second,  Crissana  Bailey, 
also  of  Saxtons  River,  and  who  was  the  grandfather  of 
Mrs.  Henry  N.  Weston  and  Mrs.  Frank  Proctor,  still 
living  in  the  northern  part  of  Rockingham  (Mrs. 
Crissana  Bailey  Whiting  died  at  the  home  of  Mrs. 
Henry  N.  Weston  in  191 2  at  the  age  of  one  hundred  and 
two);  and  Joseph,  who  married  Clarissa,  daughter  of 
Jehiel  Webb  of  Rockingham,  and  removed  after  a  few 
years  to  Springfield,  Vt.,  where  descendants  are  still 
living. 

Rev.  Elijah  Wollage,  the  second  minister,  was  born 
in  Bernardston,  Mass.,  April  13,  1769,  the  son  of  Elijah 
and  Polly  Wollage;  graduated  from  Dartmouth  Col- 
lege in  1791;  was  pastor  of  churches  in  Guilford  and 
Cambridge,  Vermont,  previous  to  coming  to  Rocking- 
ham; removed  from  Rockingham  to  New  York  state 
and  took  up  teaching;  resumed  preaching  in  1835,  and 
died  at  Starkey,  N.  Y.,  in  1847.  He  married  Sally  P. 
Babcock  of  Westmoreland,  N.  H.,  and  had  five  children, 
one  of  whom,  Elijah,  was  a  Presbyterian  minister  in 
Arkansas. 


The    Minister  4<y 

Rev.  Samuel  Mason,  the  third  minister,  was  born 
in  Cavendish,  Vt.,  September  9,  1797,  the  son  of  Daniel 
and  Betsey  Mason.  No  record  is  available  of  the  college 
from  which  he  graduated,  or  any  pastorates  previ 
to  coming  to  Rockingham.  .Alter  leaving  here,  he 
preached  in  Lempster,  Washington,  and  Kingston, 
N.  H.,  and  in  1846,  removed  to  Newburyport,  Mass., 
where  he  died  April  9,  1847.  He  married  at  Cavendish, 
previous  to  1821,  Abigail  Sawyer  Whitcomb  of  that 
place. 

Little  can  be  found  regarding  Rev.  Broughton 
White,  the  fourth  and  last  settled  minister,  except  that 
he  is  said  to  have  been  an  aged  man  when  he  came  to 
Rockingham  and  that  he  died  in  1839,  while  serving 
the  church.  The  records  of  the  Consociation  in  Wind- 
ham County  show  that  in  June,  1836,  Mr.  \\  lute  was 
moderator  of  the  meeting  of  the  Consociation  at  West- 
minster (West  Parish),  and  was  accredited  there  as  the 
pastor  of  the  church  at  Dover,  Vt.;  in  1838,  he  appears 
as  a  delegate  from  Putney,  Vt.;  and  in  1839,  as  both  a 
delegate  from  Putney  and  as  pastor  of  the  church  in 
Rockingham.  He  was  also  for  several  years  a  member 
of  the  Association  of  Ministers  in  Windham  County. 

Within  the  past  year,  an  old  leather  trunk  was  dis- 
covered in  an  attic  in  Brattleboro  containing  the  original 
record  books  of  various  earlv  church  and  ministers' 
associations  of  Windham  County,  which  furnish  addi- 
tional and  definite  information  regarding  the  early 
church  history  of  this  section.  These  are  now  in  the 
possession  of  Rev.  R.  A.  Beardslcc  of  Springfield,  \  t., 
the  scribe  of  the  Windham-Union  Ministers'  Meeting. 
This  trunk  contained  the  records  of  the  Consociation  in 
Windham  County  from  its  organization  in  1797  to  its 
dissolution  in  1840;  of  the  Association  of  Ministers  in 
Windham  County  from  1823  to  1828;  of  the  Windham 
County  Bible  Society  from  its  organization  in  1830  to 
1840;  and  of  the  Windham  Association  of  Ministers 


So 


The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 


(now  the  Windham-Union  Ministers'  Meeting),  from 
its  organization,  in  1775,  for  over  a  hundred  years;  as 
well  as  the  original  manuscript  records  of  ordination 
councils  at  various  churches  during  the  early  years  of 
the  nineteenth  century. 


CHAPTER  l\ 
The  Meeting  House  Restored 

THE  Old  Meeting  House,  abandoned  in  1839  as  a 
place  of  regular  church  worship,  still  continued  to 
be  used  for  town  meetings  until  1869,  when  they  too 
followed  the  changed  centre  of  population  to  Bellows 
Falls.  In  1906,  the  interior  of  the  building  was  put 
back  into  its  original  condition,  partly  by  town 
partly  by  private  money,  and  it  stands  today  as  one  of 
the  finest  examples  of  colonial  church  architecture  re- 
maining in  New  England,  both  in  exterior  and  interior. 

After  the  death  of  Rev.  Broughton  White,  in  1839, 
no  further  effort  was  made  to  resuscitate  the  First 
Church  in  Rockingham,  or  its  successor,  the  Congrega- 
tional Church  of  Christ  in  Rockingham.  Irregular 
church  services  have  been  held  in  the  old  Meeting 
House  to  the  present  day,  especially  in  the  summer. 
In  the  summer  of  1914,  Sunday  School  services  were 
held  there  each  week,  and  preaching  services  every 
alternate  week  under  the  auspices  of  the  Bellows  Falls 
Ministers'  Association.  These  were  well  supported 
and  it  is  possible  they  will  be  continued  each  summer. 

The  town  continued  to  hold  its  meetings  in  the  old 
building  and  it  was  possible  to  keep  it  warm  by  erect- 
ing a  small  chimney  and  installing  two  stoves.  The 
pulpit  was  removed  about  1851,  and  its  place  taken  by 
a  low  platform  for  the  convenience  of  the  moderati  >rs  of 
these  meetings;  and  the  rows  of  front  benches  removed 
for  the  sake  of  greater  space.  The  extent  >r  <  >t  the  build- 
ing was  kept  in  good  repair  by  the  town,  and  in  its 
original  condition;  but  the  interior  fell  sadly  the  prey 
to  curio  seekers.     'The  spindles  from  the  pew-rails,  the 


The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 


»~~l 

1    ' 

1     1 

1 

old  hand-forged  hinges  from  the  pew  doors,  even  the 
nails  that  held  the  pews  together — likewise  hand- 
wrought  or  whittled  from  wood — all  gradually  disap- 
peared. In  their  place,  appeared  countless  names  and 
bits  of  choice  poetry  on  the  walls,  which  certainly 
added  but  little  to  the  dignity  or  beauty  of  the  building. 

In  1869,  the  town  deserted  the  building,  holding  its 
last  meeting  there  March  19  of  that  year.  Nearly 
ninety  per  cent  of  the  legal  voters  lived  at  a  distance 
from  the  building,  while  they  were  particularly  central- 
ized around  the  villages  of  Bellows  Falls  and  Saxtons 
River.  By  a  close  vote  on  March  19,  1869,  the  town 
of  Rockingham  voted  to  hold  their  meetings  thereafter 
at  the  village  of  Bellows  Falls,  where  suitable  quarters 
had  been  guaranteed  to  them,  free  of  charge,  by  eight 
leading  citizens.  Saxtons  River  fought  hard  for  the 
meetings,  but  lost  out.  After  several  meetings  held  in 
Wightman's  and  Engine  House  Halls,  they  settled  on 
Union  Hall,  where  they  were  usually  held,  until  the 
Opera  House  Block,  or  Town  Hall  building,  was  erected 
by  the  town  in  1887. 

Deserted  first  by  the  church,  and  then  even  by  the 
town,  the  Old  Meeting  House  stood  on  its  hill,  ever 
increasingly  a  memento  of  the  past. 

On  May  15,  1906,  at  a  special  town  meeting,  it  was 
voted  to  appropriate  five  hundred  dollars  to  repair 
the  Old  Meeting  Flouse  thoroughly,  and  restore  it  to 
its  original  condition  as  far  as  possible,  with  the  under- 
standing that  at  least  a  similar  amount  should  be 
raised  by  private  subscription.  This  was  done,  and  a 
total  of  about  twelve  hundred  dollars  obtained  for  the 
purpose,  the  private  subscriptions  coming  both  from 
local  people,  and  from  descendants  of  old  residents 
now  living  at  a  distance;  and  ranging  in  amounts  from 
fifty  cents  to  fifty  dollars.  Mrs.  Horace  W.  Thompson 
of  Bellows  Falls  was  largely  instrumental  in  starting 
this  movement  and  in  raising  the  money  to  carry  it  to  a 


The  Meeting  House  Restored 


53 


successful  completion.  Mrs.  Thompson's  maiden  name 
was  Elizabeth  Billings  Jackson,  and  she  was  a  grand- 
daughter of  Samuel  I,.  Hillings,  one  of  the  mosi  promi- 
nent citizens  of  Rockingham  from  1S40  to  [863,  and  a 
great-granddaughter  of  Susannah  Hillings,  one  o\  the 
members  of  the  First  Church  after  its  reorganization 
in  1818. 

The  work  was  done  under  the  personal  supervision 
of  Myron  H.  Ray,  first  selectman  of  the  town  of  Rock- 
ingham, to  whose  great  interest  and  carefulness  is  due 
in  no  small  degree  the  successful  working  out  oi  the 
plans.  The  work  included  placing  the  building  in 
thorough  repair  by  overhauling  the  underpinning, 
putting  on  a  new  slate  roof,  and  repainting  the  outside 
with  another  coat  of  fresh,  white  paint;  and  the  com- 
plete restoration  of  the  interior  to  its  original  condition 
as  shown  by  record  and  family  legend.  In  accomplish- 
ing the  latter,  the  stoves  were  removed  and  the  long 
benches  replaced;  sixty  pew  doors  replaced,  using  a 
replica  of  the  old  hand-wrought  hinges;  over  fourteen 
hundred  spindles  put  back  into  the  rails  separating  the 
pews;*  the  pulpit  rebuilt  at  its  old  height  and  in  as 
near  its  original  form  as  could  be  determined;  and  the 
walls  re-dressed  in  their  original  whiteness.  In  all 
interior  woodwork,  California  redwood  in  its  natural 
state  was  used,  as  most  closely  duplicating  the  weath- 
ered pine  already  there. 

The  restoration  was  completed  late  in  the  fall  of 
1906,  but  the  re-dedication  was  delayed  until  the  follow- 
ing summer,  in  order  that  it  might  serve  as  an  Old 
Home  Day,  at  a  season  when  many  of  the  old  time 
residents  and  their  descendants  could  attend. 

On  August  17,  1907,  the  Old  Rockingham  Meeting 
House  was  re-dedicated  in  the  presence  of  nearly  twelve 
hundred  people,  gathered  from  far  and  near  to  do  honor 


♦Only  two  old  spindles  were  found  in  place,  while  1,400  had  been  removed. 


The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 

to  the  building  and  to  those  who  erected  it  and  wor- 
shipped there,  and  who  decided  in  it  the  momentous 
questions  of  town  and  state  in  the  most  critical  period 
of  our  history.  The  Rockingham  Grange  served  as 
hosts  during  both  the  picnic  dinner  at  noon  and  the 
afternoon  services.  After  an  address  of  welcome  by 
N.  L.  Divoll  of  Rockingham  Village,  the  address  of  the 
day  was  given  by  Hon.  Kittredge  Haskins  of  Brattle- 
boro,  who  took  as  his  theme,  "  Vermont  and  what  it  has 
done  for  the  entire  country".  This  was  followed  by 
short  addresses  by  a  number  of  Rockingham  men  and 
descendants  of  early  citizens,  including  Rev.  H.  H. 
Shaw  of  Marlboro  (a  direct  descendant  of  Rev.  Samuel 
Whiting),  Rev.  L.  O.  Sherburne  of  Bellows  Falls,  Rev. 
Rodney  W.  Roundy  of  Ludlow  (a  "Rockingham  Boy" 
now  in  Keene,  N.  H.),  W.  C.  Belknap,  Dr.  E.  R.  Camp- 
bell, and  C.  W.  Osgood  of  Bellows  Falls,  and  Foster  B. 
Locke  of  Saxtons  River.  The  following  resolutions,* 
introduced  by  Dr.  E.  R.  Campbell,  were  unanimously 
passed  by  the  assemblage: 

Resolved,  that  we,  here  assembled  on  Rockingham 
Old  Home  Day,  to  re-dedicate  the  old  meeting 
house,  hereby  tender  to  Mrs.  Elizabeth  B.  Thomp- 
son a  vote  of  thanks  for  her  most  earnest  and  suc- 
cessful work  in  making  possible  the  restoration  of 
the  old  church  and  the  exercises  of  today. 

Resolved,  that  she  is  hereby  appointed  to  co- 
operate with  a  committee  of  five  to  be  selected  by 
herself  to  arrange  for  an  annual  or  biennial  gather- 
ing at  this  place. 

In  this  last  clause  was  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
Annual  Pilgrimages  to  the  Old  Church,  which  have 
grown  to  be  an  ever  increasing  factor  in  the  summer 
life  of  the  town  of  Rockingham. f 

In  addition  to  the  money  which  made  this  restora- 


*A  framed  copy  of  these  resolutions  hangs  now  in  the  Old  Meeting  House  beside  a 
short  history  of  the  restoration  and  a  list  of  those  making  it  financially  possible. 
tChapter  VI. 


The  Meeting  House   Re  >  lured  55 

tion  possible,  there  was  presented  to  the  old  church  at 
this  time  the  following  gifts  of  value:  A  visitors'  register 
especially  designed  and  gotten  out  for  the  church  by- 
Frank  S.  Whitten  of  Lynn,  Mass.;  a  pair  of  curtains 
for  the  circular  window  behind  the  pulpit,  by  Hope 
Lovell  of  Rockingham;  cushions  for  the  seat  in  the 
pulpit  and  the  one  in  the  deacon's  pew  front  of  the 
pulpit,  by  Mrs.  Thompson  and  J.  E.  Keefe;  a  copy  of 
the  reprint  of  the  Records  of  the  First  Church,  by 
Thomas  Bellows  Peck  of  Walpole,  N.  H.;  and  a  copy  of 
the  History  of  the  Town  of  Rockingham  by  the  Select- 
men. 

Several  relics  of  the  church  were  also  on  exhibition 
at  this  time,  among  them  being  the  key  of  the  old 
original  lock*  on  the  door,  now  in  the  possession  of  T.  R. 
McQuaide  of  Claremont,  N.  H.;  two  pewter  goblets  and 
the  linen  forming  part  of  the  Communion  service  used 
by  the  First  Church,  and  the  original  record  book  of  the 
First  Church.  All  except  the  key  are  now  in  the  posses- 
sion of  theOld  Rockingham  Meeting  House  Association. 

Two  plates  marking  the  pews  were  also  dedicated  at 
this  time.  One  bears  the  inscription,  tk  In  memory  of 
Nathaniel  Davis,  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  Rockingham, 
who,  with  his  family,  occupied  this  pew  for  many  years. 
Given  by  the  children  of  John  H.  and  Susan  B.  Davis". 
A  second,  in  memory  of  the  family  of  Caspar  Shana 
Wolfe,  who  came  to  Rockingham  in  1784,  was  placed 
on  his  pew  by  Mrs.  Sarah  Millard  Rogers  of  Charles- 
town,  N.  H.  Since  this  date,  the  pews  have  been 
similarly  marked  which  were  occupied  by  Joshua 
Webb,  who  came  to  Rockingham  in  1768;  Ebenezer 
Allbee,  who  settled  in  town  in  1770  or  1771;  Wm.  \Y. 
Pulsipher;  John  Wiley  2nd;  and  Josiah   Whitef  who 

*The  lock  itself  is  also  in  the  possession  of  the  McQuaide  family. 

tjosiah  White  is  shown  by  the  town  records  to  have  taken  a  very  active  part  in  the 
affairs  of  the  town  from  his  removal  here  in  1773  to  his  death  in  L806.  He  was  especial- 
ly active  in  the  formation  of  the  State  of  Vermont  and  the  struggle  for  independence 
from  the  Mother  Countrv  that  followed,  being  one  of  the  men  from  RockinRham  who 
"marcht  to  Manchester"  in  1777.  He  made  his  home  on  the  farm  in  the  nortl' 
of  the  town  now  known  as  the  Chester  B.  Hadwen  place.  A  copy  of  the  inscription  oa 
his  tombstone  is  given  in  Chapter  I,  p.  25. 


. 


56  The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 

joined  the  settlers  in  1773.  At  the  Annual  Pilgrimage, 
August  4,  1912,  a  bronze  tablet  in  honor  of  Dr.  Reuben 
Jones*  placed  on  the  wall  to  the  left  of  the  pulpit,  was 
presented  by  Mrs.  Frederick  E.  Wadhams  of  Albany, 
N.  Y.,  a  great-granddaughter  of  Dr.  Jones.  The 
tablet  bears  the  following  inscription: 

"In  memory  of  Dr.  Reuben  Jones,  who  wor- 
shipped for  many  years  in  this  Meeting  House. 
Born,  March  7,  1747;  died  January  7,  1833.  He 
and  his  wife  were  received  into  the  church  on  Febru- 
ary 13,  1780,  and  their  children  were  baptized  here. 
He  was  the  first  physician  in  Rockingham;  a  Liberty 
Man  in  the  Westminster  Massacre  and  a  soldier  of 
the  Revolution.  He  represented  Rockingham  in 
the  conventions  which  resulted  in  the  formation  of 
the  State  of  Vermont;  and  served  in  the  first  general 
assemblies  of  the  state." 

An  appropriate  poem  was  written  expressly  for  the 
re-dedication  of  the  Meeting  House  by  Miss  Mary  O. 
Divoll,  of  Rockingham,  and  read  by  her  at  that  meeting. 


*The  inscription  on  the  tablet  in  memory  of  Dr.  Reuben  Jones  gives  only  a  small 
idea  of  the  part  he  took  in  the  early  affairs,  not  only  of  Rockingham,  but  of  the  entire 
State  of  Vermont.  He,  with  Captain  Azariah  Wright  of  Westminster,  were  the 
leaders  of  the  liberty  party  in  Eastern  Vermont  throughout  the  entire  Revolutionary 
period,  taking  much  the  same  place  in  this  part  of  that  State  that  Ethan  Allen  took 
in  the  western  part.  Later  he  took  a  decidedly  leading  part  in  the  formation  of  the 
State  of  Vermont  and  its  admission  into  the  Union.  He  was  one  of  the  original  grantees 
of  the  town  of  Concord,  Vt.,  and  obtained  from  others  a  share  in  the  previously  granted 
islands  in  Lake  Champlain,  early  known  as  the  "Two  Heroes."  He  moved  from 
Rockingham  to  Chester,  which  town  he  also  represented  in  the  Legislature;  and  later 
removed  to  the  state  of  New  York,  at  Keesville,  in  which  state  he  died  in  1833.  His 
son  also,  Dr.  Reuben  Jones,  was  a  leading  physician  and  judge  of  the  state  of  New 
York,  and  served  as  surgeon  in  the  War  of  1812.  Pages  687-689  of  the  History  of  the 
Town  of  Rockingham  give  in  detail  all  the  information  available  regarding  this  remark- 
able man. 


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CHAPTER  V 

The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House  Association 

/^\N  the  afternoon  of  May  I,  191 1,  nine  interested 
^-^  citizens  of  Rockingham  and  vicinity  nut  in 
Hotel  Windham,  at  Bellows  Falls,  and  formed  the  Old 
Rockingham  Meeting  House  Association,  the  objects 
of  which  were  stated  by  them  as  follows: 

"In  order  to  preserve  the  Old  Rockingham 
Meeting  House  and  other  buildings  or  monuments 
of  marked  historical  interest  in  Rockingham  and 
the  neighboring  towns,  and  for  the  purpose  of 
commemorating  important  historical  events  in  the 
settlement  and  growth  of  Rockingham  and  adjacent 
territory;  for  providing  an  Annual  Pilgrimage  to 
the  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House,  and  for  fur- 
ther purpose  of  encouraging  love  for  the  civic, 
social  and  religious  principles  and  institutions  in- 
corporated in  our  local,  state  and  national  govern- 
ment." 

Following  is  a  list  of  those  thus  banding  themselves 
together:  Prof.  Franklin  W.  Hooper  of  Brooklyn,  X.  Y. 
and  Walpole,  N.  H.;  Dr.  H.  D.  Holton  of  Brattleboro, 
Vt.;  Miss  Mary  O.  Divoll  of  Rockingham  Villa 
C.  W.  Osgood,  Rev.  A.  P.  Pratt,  W.  C.  Belknap.  V 
Williams,  L.  S.  Hayes,  and  H.  W.  Mitchell,  all  of 
Bellows  Falls. 

The  association  was  incorporated  June  28,  191 1. 
by  filing  with  the  Secretary  of  State  the  Articles  of 
Association,  and  the  following  officers  were  elected  soon 
after: 


58  The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 

Prof.  Franklin  W.  Hooper,  LL.  D.,  President 
Gen.  Nathan  G.  Williams.  1st  Vice-President 
Mrs.  Josiah  G.  Bellows,  2d  Vice-President 

Henry  D.  Holton,  M.  D.,  3d  Vice-President 

Charles   W.   Osgood,  4th   \  ice-President 

Rev.  Arthur  P.  Pratt,  Ph.  D.,  Secretary 

Willis    C.    Belknap,  Treasurer 

Lyman  S.  Hayes,  Librarian 

Executive  Committee 
Hon.  Horace  A.  Perry,  Walpole. 
Thomas  Bellows  Peck,  Walpole. 
Charles  X.  Vilas,  Alstead. 
Hon.  John  W.  Prentiss,  Alstead. 
Natt  L.  Divoll,  Rockingham. 
Herbert  W.  Mitchell,  Rockingham. 
Justus  Dartt,  Springfield. 
Rev.  Henry  L.  Ballou,  Chester. 

These  officers  continue  the  same  today,  except  that 
Warren  L.  Hooper  has  taken  the  place  of  T.  B.  Peck 
on  the  executive  committee,  and  Merrill  L.  Lawrence, 
that  of  Justus  Dartt.  Professor  Hooper  has  recently 
died,  and  his  place  as  president  will  be  filled  at  the  next 
annual  meeting.  The  membership  has  increased  to 
sixty-six,  and  includes  people  from  Xew  York,  South 
Dakota,  Connecticut,  California,  Massachusetts,  and 
Illinois,  in  addition  to  those  from  \  ermont  and  Xew 
Hampshire.  Efforts  are  being  made  at  the  present 
time  to  materially  increase  this  membership,  and  to 
raise  a  permanent  fund  of  twenty-five  hundred  dollars, 
which  would  yield  an  income  sufficient  to  cover  the 
expense  of  the  Annual  Pilgrimages,  with  the  help  of  the 
collections  each  year.  So  far,  the  expense  of  these  has 
been  met  by  circulating  subscription  papers.  If  this 
plan  works  out,  it  would  certainly  serve  as  a  very 
fitting  memorial  for  Professor  Hooper. 

The  constitution  of  the  Association*  provides  that 
an   annual   public   meeting  shall  be  held   on   the  last 


*Appendix  V. 


Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House  Association        59 

Monday  in  April  in  Bellows  Falls;  and  that  an  Annual 
Pilgrimage  to  the  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 
shall  be  arranged  the  latter  part  of  July  or  the  early 
part  of  August  of  each  year.  Both  these  meetings  and 
Pilgrimages*  have  grown  to  be  important  lactors  in  the 
life  of  the  town  and  have  done  much  to  stir  up  public 
interest  in  things  historical  and  civic.  Speakers  of 
prominence  have  been  obtained  for  each  meeting,  who 
have  taken  as  their  subjects  some  phase  of  the  historical 
or  civic  life  of  this  vicinity. 

The  Association  was  formed  to  carry  forward  the 
Annual  Pilgrimages  to  the  Meeting  House,  which  were 
presaged  in  the  resolutions  adopted  at  the  re-dedica- 
tion of  the  building  in  1907,  and  which  had  become  an 
annual  feature  between  that  date  and  the  organization 
of  the  Association  in  191 1,  but  it  has  already  gone 
farther  than  this. 

To  Professor  Franklin  W.  Hooper,  more  than  to  any- 
other  man,  belongs  the  credit  for  this  entire  work.  To 
his  interest  in  the  Old  Meeting  House  and  all  it  stands 
for,  and  his  untiring  devotion  to  the  work  involved, 
is  due  to  a  large  extent  the  present  organization  and  all 
for  which  it  stands.  In  his  death,  which  occurred 
August  1,  1914,  the  Association  has  lost  its  leader  and 
its  most  faithful  servant,  and  his  place  will  be  hard  to 
fill.  Professor  Hooper  was  a  great-great-grandson  of 
David  Pulsipher,  one  of  the  original  members  ol  the 
First  Church  of  Rockingham  at  its  organization  in  1775. 
the  keeper  of  the  "Inn"  at  Rockingham  Village  at  that 
time,  one  of  the  four  men  presenting  to  the  town  the 
land  on  which  the  Meeting  House  was  built,  and  a 
noted  patriot  of  the  town  of  Rockingham  in  the  War 
of  the  Revolution. 

Prof.  Hooper's  interest  in  Rockingham  is  shown  by 
the  following  extract  from  a  letter  written  by  him  soon 
after  the  pilgrimage  to  the  Meeting  House  in  [913: 

*Chapter  VI. 


6o 


The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 


"I  am  realizing,  more  and  more,  as  the  years 
go  by,  that  the  great  majority  of  us,  who  have  not 
been  in  touch  with  the  history  of  Rockingham  do 
not  appreciate  as  we  otherwise  would  just  what 
Rockingham  has  done  for  the  State  of  Vermont 
and  for  the  country  at  large." 

The  following  extract  from  his  obituary  in  the 
Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle,  summarizes  the  life  of  this  man 
better  than  can  other  words: 

"No  man  ever  did  so  much  to  dignify  the  posi- 
tion of  the  old  City  of  Brooklyn,  in  the  world  of 
science  and  art,  as  Professor  Franklin  William 
Hooper.  .  .  A  native  of  New  Hampshire,  a 
graduate  of  Harvard,  a  specialist  in  biology  and 
geology,  he  came  here  first  as  a  professor  in  Adel- 
phi  College,  where  he  taught  natural  science  for 
nine  years.  In  1889,  he  became  the  director  of  the 
Brooklyn  Institute  of  Arts  and  Sciences.  For  a 
quarter  of  a  century  his  energetic  activities  have 
been  given  to  the  development  of  this  institution 
which  has  become  the  pride  of  the  city  and  a  model 
for  work  in  many  other  cities." 

The  Association  has  also  lost  another  leader  in  the 
past  few  months,  in  the  death  of  Thomas  Bellows  Peck, 
also  of  Walpole.  Mr.  Peck  was  one  of  the  first  men  to 
appreciate  the  value  to  the  present  generation  of  the 
Rockingham  Meeting  House.  His  reprint  of  the 
Records  of  the  First  Church  in  Rockingham  was  prob- 
ably largely  responsible  for  the  present  interest  in  this 
subject,  centering  as  it  does  around  the  Rockingham 
Meeting  House  Association  and  the  Annual  Pilgrimages 
to  the  Meeting  House.  He  died  at  Salem,  Mass.,  Jan- 
uary 2,  1915. 


SURROUNDED    BY    ITS    BURYING   GROUND 


y  i  JBf—iiB  B^dfccj 


THE    DEACONS      SE  \  fS 


CHAPTER  \  I 

Annual  Pilgrimages  to  the  Old  Meeting  House 

SINCE  the  re-dedication  of  the  Old  Meeting  I  louse 
in  1907,  Annual  Pilgrimages  have  been  mack-  to 
that  shrine  each  summer;  in  fact,  these  pilgrimages 
might  be  said  to  antedate  the  re-dedication,  since  on 
July  28,  1907,  about  three  weeks  previous  to  that 
service,  a  meeting  was  held  there  under  the  leadership 
of  clergymen  from  Walpole  and  participated  in  by 
about  one  hundred  people  from  Walpole,  Bellows  Falls, 
Rockingham,  and  Springfield.  This  meeting  largely 
took  the  form  of  an  old  time  church  service. 

The  second  Annual  Pilgrimage  occurred  July  29, 
1908,  when  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  people  gathered 
at  the  Old  Meeting  House  and  listened  to  an  able 
address  by  Rev.  Edwin  N.  Hardy  of  Quinc\ \  Mass.,  on 
"The  Old  New  England  Meeting  Houses".  The  ser- 
mon was  preached  by  Rev.  Samuel  M.  Crothers  of 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  on  the  subject,  "Ideal  Qualities  of 
a  Christian". 

The  third  Annual  Pilgrimage  on  August  1,  1909, 
brought  together  about  three  hundred  people  from  the 
surrounding  towns.  The  address  was  by  Professor 
Calvin  M.  Woodward,  LL.  D.,  of  St.  Louis,  on  ''The 
Ideal  of  New  England",  while  the  sermon  was  by  Dr. 
Thomas  R.  Sheer,  D.  D.,  of  All  Soul's  Church  of  Nen 
York,  on  "The  Fear  of  a  Noble  Mind". 

July  31,  1910,  about  seven  hundred  people  gathered 
at  the  Old  Meeting  House  for  their  fourth  Annual 
Pilgrimage,  and  plans  were  laid  for  the  formation  of  a 
permanent  organization  to  take  charge  of  these  pilgrim- 
ages.    Addresses  were  made  by  Hon.   Edwin  A.  Mead 


62  The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 

of  Boston,  on  "The  New  England  Meeting  Houses", 
and  Pres.  John  M.  Thomas,  of  Middlebury  College, 
on  "Vermont's  Service  to  the  Nation".  Mr.  Mead 
spoke  of  the  Rockingham  Meeting  House  as  occupying 
a  position  almost  unique  among  the  meeting  houses  of 
New  England,  since  it  is  almost  the  only  one  built  in 
the  eighteenth  century  which  stands  today  in  its  original 
condition  of  both  exterior  and  interior. 

In  191 1,  the  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 
Association  was  formed  not  only  to  take  charge  of 
these  pilgrimages,  but  to  further  in  every  way  possible 
the  interest  in  historical  matters  of  the  people  of  this 
vicinity. 

The  fifth  Annual  Pilgrimage  to  the  Old  Meeting 
House,  and  the  first  under  the  auspices  of  the  permanent 
organization,  took  place  July  30,  191 1.  Hon.  John  A. 
Mead,  Governor  of  the  State  of  Vermont,  delivered 
the  address  of  the  day,  speaking  particularly  of  the  State 
and  its  good  work;  the  sermon  was  by  Rev.  A.  J.  Lyman, 
D.  D.,  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  on  "The  Deeper  Unity  of 
the  New  England  Religious  History",  and  a  short 
address  by  Professor  Hooper,  President  of  the  associa- 
tion, covered  the  history  of  the  movement  compre- 
hensively. All  these  addresses  were  listened  to  with 
much  attention  by  nearly  six  hundred  people  present. 

At  the  sixth  Annual  Pilgrimage  on  August  4,  191 2, 
a  tablet  on  the  wall  of  the  old  church,  in  memory  of 
Dr.  Reuben  Jones,  was  presented  to  the  town  by  F.  E. 
Wadhams  of  Albany,  N.  Y.,  as  the  gift  of  his  wife,  a 
descendant  of  Dr.  Jones.*  A  poem,  "The  Candle  in 
the  Choir",|  relating  a  legend  of  the  Old  Meeting 
House,  was  written  for  the  occasion  by  Percy  MacKaye 
and  read  by  the  author.  At  the  time  of  this  pilgrimage, 
the  two  old  pewter  tankards  and  the  Communion  linen, 
formerly  used  by  the  First  Church  of  Rockingham, 
were  first  seen  in  their  new  glass  case  in  the  Meeting 

*Chapter  IV  p.  56. 
tPage  11. 


Annual  Pilgrimages  to  the  Old  Meeting  House 

House.     The  sermon  was  by  Rev.   Philip  S.  Moxom, 
D.  D.,  of  Springfield,  Mass.,  who  drew  many  inl 
ing  lessons  for  us  today  from   the  characterisl 
the  early  settlers  of  the  country. 

Despite  severe  rain,  about  six  hundred  people  at- 
tended the  seventh  Annual  Pilgrimage  on  Aug  10, 
191 3,  when  Professor  Hooper,  president  of  the  Associa- 
tion, delivered  an  address  on  the  salient  points  of  local 
history.  The  sermon  by  Rev.  L.  Mason  Clarke-,  D.  D., 
of  Brooklyn,  was  on  the  theme,  "Religion  and  Patriot- 
ism", and  reached  very  closely  the  hearts  of  his  hearers. 

The  eighth  and  last  Annual  Pilgrimage  to  date 
held  on  August  2,  1914,  was  greatly  saddened  by  the 
death  the  day  before  of  Professor  Hooper,  who  had 
been  such  a  vital  element  in  all  this  latter-day  work 
centering  around  the  Old  Meeting  House.  The  meet- 
ing served  to  bring  together  nearly  one  thousand  people, 
from  the  surrounding  towns  and  villages,  with  man) 
coming  from  a  distance.  All  enjoyed  very  much  t la- 
sermon  by  Rev.  Rockwell  H.  Potter,  D.  D.,  of  Hart- 
ford, Conn.,  on  the  subject,  "The  Meeting  House  and 
Her  Children",  and  the  address  by  Senator  \\  .  P. 
Dillingham,  on  "Vermont  in  History".  Resolutions 
of  sorrow  and  sympathy  upon  the  death  ot  Professor 
Hooper  were  adopted  by  the  meeting. 

As  has  been  mentioned,  the  annual  public  meeting 
of  the  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  H<  >use  Ass<  iciation  held 
in  April  in  the  village  of  Bellows  Falls,  have  attracted 
each  year  an  increasing  amount  of  public  interest.  At 
the  first  one,  held  April  29,  1912,  Rev.  A.  P.  Pratt,  the 
secretary  of  the  Association,  read  a  very  interesting 
summary  of  the  gradual  awakening  ot  interest  in  the 
Old  Meeting  House,  and  Professor  Hooper  gave  an  able 
account  of  the  geology  of  the  Connecticut  valley  in  the 
vicinity  of  Bellows  Falls. 

At  the  second  annual  meeting,  April  28,  lot  ;,  three 
short  addresses  were  given,  i  >ne  by  I ..  S.  1  laj  es,  hist  >rian 


64 


The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 


of  the  Association  and  author  of  t^he  History  of  Rock- 
ingham, on  "Nathaniel  Tucker,  the  Tucker  Toll  Bridge, 
and  the  Tucker  Mansion";  a  second  by  Principal  A. 
E.  Tuttle,  on  "Regard  for  Antiquities",  and  a  third  by 
Professor  Hooper  on  the  subject,  "The  Development 
of  Our  Natural  Resources,  or  the  Back-to-the-Land 
Movement".  The  latter  was  a  particularly  able  and 
interesting  address,  and  it  was  voted  by  the  Association 
that  it  be  preserved  in  printed  form. 

The  third  annual  meeting  was  held  April  27,  1914, 
and  again  three  addresses  were  enjoyed  by  those  pre- 
sent: one  by  State  Senator  F.  H.  Babbitt  on  "The 
Westminster  Court  House  Massacre";  a  second  by 
Rev.  H.  L.  Ballou  of  Chester,  with  the  subject,  "His- 
torical Review— Vermont";  and  a  third  by  Professor 
Hooper,  on  "Idealism  in  History,  or  America's  Con- 
quest of  Europe". 

From  this  brief  review  of  the  organization  and 
meetings  of  the  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House  Asso- 
ciation, it  will  be  seen  that  the  Association  is  not  only 
caring  for  the  Old  Meeting  House,  sacred  alike  to  God, 
to  our  civic  development,  and  to  the  men  who  wor- 
shipped and  labored  in  the  building,  but  that  it  is 
serving  as  a  general  historical  society  in  fostering  the 
public  interest  and  knowledge  in  historical  matters. 

The  House  Our  Fathers  Built  to  God 

We  love  the  venerable  house 

Our  fathers  built  to  God; 
In  heaven  are  kept  their  grateful  vows, 

Their  dust  endears  the  sod. 

Here  holy  thoughts  a  light  have  shed 

From  many  a  radiant  face, 
And  prayers  of  tender  hope  have  spread 

A  perfume  through  the  place. 


- 


X 


o 
u 


Annual  Pilgrimages  to  the  Old  Meeth     II    ■ 

And  anxious  hearts  have  pondered  here 

The  mystery  of  life, 
And  prayed  the  Eternal  Spirit  clear 

Their  doubts  and  aid  their  strife. 

From  humble  tenements  around 

Came  up  the  pensive  train. 
And  in  the  church  a  blessing  found, 

Which  filled  their  homes  again. 

For  faith  and  peace,  and  mighty  love, 

That  from  the  Godhead  flow  . 
Showed  from  the  life  of  heaven  above 

Springs  from  the  life  below. 

They  live  with  God,  their  homes  are  dust, 

But  here  their  children  pray, 
And,  in  this  fleeting  lifetime,  trust 

To  find  the  narrow  way. 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 


V"  \ 


1 


APPENDIX   I 


Members  of  the  First  Church  in  Rockingham 

(Not  included  in  Index,  except  when  elsewhere  mentioned 
in  reading  matter.) 

Members  Between  the  Original  Organization  in  1773 
and  the  Dismissal  of  Rev.  Samuel  Whiting 
in  1809,  with  Date  of  Joining. 

Albee,  Ebenezer,  September  15,  1776. 

Albee,  Rachel,  September  15,  1776. 

Balch,  Julia,  February  23,  1794  (from  Keene,  N.  H.). 

Benton,  Mrs.  Hannah,  1786.  Recommended  by  Harming- 
ton  Chh.,  Conn. 

Benton,  Jacob,  September  4,  1791,  ditto. 

Berry,  Mrs.,  September  10,  1786.  Recommended  by  Jeffrey 
Chh. 

Burr,  Eunice  (Wife  of  Jonathan),  March  13,  1774. 

Burr,  Jonathan,  March  13,  1774. 

Chamberlain,  Lydia,  October  4,  1801,  from  Hopkinton,  Mass. 

Clark,  Ebenezer,  January  22,  1786. 

Cooper,  Sarah  (Wife  of  John),  September  22,  1782. 

*Davis,  Nathaniel,  October  27,  1773. 

Davis,  Phillip,  May  5,  1793,  from  Mansfield  Chh. 

Dutton,  Josiah,  September  27,  1778. 

Dutton,  Sarah  (Wife  of  Thomas),  May  4,  1777.  From 
Church  of  Christ  in  Lunenburgh. 

Dutton,  Thomas,  May  4,  1777.     Ditto. 

Edson,  Daniel,  August  31,  1781.  Recommended  from 
Bridgewater  Church.  Dismissed  to  First  Baptist  Church 
of  Christ  in  Richmond,  June  25,  1786. 

Edson,  Olive  (Wife  of  Daniel).  August  31,  1781.  Recom- 
mended from  Bridgewater  Church. 

Edson,  Olive  (Wife  of  Isaiah),  June  26,  1791. 

Ellis,  Charlotte,  November  23,  1806. 

Ellis,  John,  September  2,  1781. 

Ellis,  Urana  (Wife  of  John),  July  11,  1790. 

Emery,  Samuel,  September  18,  1791.  Recommended  from 
the  Chh  in  Jaffrey. 


Members  of  the  First  Church  >  ~ 

& 

Emery, (Wife  of  Samuel),  September  18,  1791,  Jaffre 

*Evans,  Asher,  October  27,  1773. 

JEvans,  Eli,  July  25,  1779. 

JEvans,  Hannah  (Wife  of  Eli),  July  25,  1779. 

Evans,  Lectah,  September  2,  1781. 

*Evans,  Mary  (Wife  of  Asher),  October  27,  1773. 

*Evans,  Mercy  (Wife  of  Peter),  October  27,  177,. 

*Evans  Mercy  (Wife  of  Peter  Junr.),  October  27,  177}. 

*Evans,  Peter,  October  27,  1773.     Elected  Deacon   June  12, 

1774- 
*Evans,  Peter  Junr.,  October  27,  1773. 

*Fuller,  Ebenezer,  October  27,  1773. 

Fuller,  Elizabeth,  December  30,  178 1. 

♦Fuller,  Mercy,  October  27,  1773. 

Fuller,  Rhoda,  June  29,  1783. 

Green,  Sarah  (Widow),  September  20,  1795. 

Harris,  William,  May  5,  1782.     Dismissed. 

Hazletine,  Jonas,  July  27,  1783. 

Johnson,  Dorcas,  (Wife  of  Isaiah),  February  18,  1786. 

Jones,  Eunice  (Wife  of  Reuben),  February  13,  1780. 

Jones,  Reuben,  February  13,  1780. 

Kendall,  Hannah  (Wife  of  Eleazer),  November  9,  1^00. 
By  recommendation. 

Kendall,  Mary  (Wife  of  Ebenezer),  June  11,  1786. 

Kingsley,  Naomi,  January  13,  1774.  Dismissed  to  the 
Christian  people  where  she  lives,  June  25,  1786. 

Knight,  Russell,  April  24,  1785.  Recommended  from  Lan- 
caster. 

Knights,  Mercy  (Wife  of  Elijah),  December  16,  17S1. 

Lane,  John,  June  19,  1785.  Recommended.  Dismissed  to 
Grafton  March  30,  1794. 

*Larrabee,  Anne  (Wife  of  Samuel),  October  27,  1 77  ; . 

*Larrabee,  Samuel,  October  27,  1773. 

Lovell,  John,  December  21,  1777. 

Lovell,  Martha  (Wife  of  John),  December  21,  1777. 

JMuzzy,  Anna  (Wife  of  Joseph),  September  8,  1  8  1 1 . 

JOber,  Samuel,  September  18,  1 791.      From  JafTrey. 

Ober,  -  —  (Wife  of  Samuel),  September  18,  1791.  From 
Jaffrey. 

*01cott,  Elias,  October  27,  1773.     Elected  Deacon  June  12, 

1775- 
*01cott,  Sibbel  (Wife  of  Elias),  October  27,  1773. 

Pease,   Jacob,    September   3,    1779.      By    Recommendation. 

Elected  Deacon  May  6,  1782. 


The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 

Pease,    Mary    (Wife    of   Jacob),     September    3,    1779.     By- 
Recommendation. 
Perry,  Daniel,  May  10,  1795. 
Preston,  Elenor,  October  2,  1774.     Dismissed  to  church  in 

Rutland,  May  23,  1784. 
Proctor,  Lydia  (Wife  of  Nathan),  July  27,  1794. 
^Pulsipher,  David,  October  27,  1773. 
*Pulsipher,  Elizabeth  (Wife  of  David),  October  27,  1773. 
Pulsipher,  John,  May  24,  1789. 
Pulsipher,  Priscilla,  May  11,  1783. 
Read,  Frederic,  1784. 
Read,  Louisa  (Wife  of  Frederic),  1784. 
Roundy,  Sarah,  July  6,  1783.     Recommended  from  the  Chh 

in  Ware. 
*Simonds,  William,  October  27,  1773. 
*Simonds,  —         -  (WTife  of  William),  October  27,  1773. 
Stanlev,    David,    September    10,    1786.     Recommended    by 

Jaftrey  Chh. 
Stearns,  Lydia  (Wife  of  William  Junr.),  August  12,  1798. 
Stearns,  William  Junr.,  August  12,  1798. 
Stearns,  -  -  (Wife  of  William),  May  24,  1789. 

JStoell,  Joanna  (Wife  of  John),  September  28,  1794. 
^Stoell,  John,  September  28,  1794. 
Stoell,  Phebe,  October  28,  1781. 
Taylor,  Mrs.,  August  22,  1790. 
Trott,  Vashti  (Evans),  November  10,  1782.     Dismissed  to 

Walpole,  June  26,  1786. 
Walker  (Wife  of  James),  December  22,  1789. 
Walker,  Rebecca  (Wife  of  Timothy),  December  24,  1780. 
Walker,  Timothy,  December  24,  1780. 
Webb,  Jehiel,  December  21,  1777. 
Webb,  Mary  (W7ife  of  Jehiel),  December  21,  1777. 
*Whiting,  Mary  (Wife  of  Rev.  Samuel),  October  27,  1773  or 

1774.     Recommended  Warwick,  Mass. 
*Whiting,   Rev.   Samuel,   October  27,    1773.     First    Settled 

Minister. 
Whiting,  Samuel  Junr.,  November  4,  1S06.     On  Death  Bed. 
JWhiting,  Sarah,  April  10,  1808. 
Whitney,  Agnis,  August  25,  1776. 
Williams,  Margaret. 

Wood,  Mrs.  Barnabas,  September  18,  1 791. 
Wood,  George,  1784.     Dismissed  to  Fitchburg  Church,  Nov. 

23,  1788. 


Members  of  the  First  Chun 

Wood,  Joseph,  Jul)'  31,  1774.  Dismissed  to  any  Church  of 
our  Communion,  May  2,  1783. 

Wood,  Sarah  (Wife  of  George),  1784.  Dismissed  to  Fitch- 
burg  Church,  Nov.  23,  1788. 

Chester  Members 

(Probably  incomplete.) 

Chandler,  Thomas  &  Wife. 

Hotten,  Esther  (Wife  of  Joshua),  May  II,  1777. 

Hotten,  Joshua,  May  11,  1777. 

Johnson,  Isaiah  &  Wife,  February  18,  1776. 

Johnson,  Phebe,  March  13,  1774. 

Sargeants,  Jabez,  November  27,  1774. 

Sargeants,  Persis  (Wife  of  Jabez),  November  27,  1774. 

Sargent,  Jabez  Junr.,  &  Wife. 

Subscribers  to  the  "Half  Way  Covenant" 

Berry,  Asa,  November  24,  1803. 

Berry,  Hannah  (Wife  of  Joel),  November  24,  1803. 

Berry,  Joel,  November  24,  1803. 

Berry,  Nancy  (Wife  of  John),  December  15,  1802. 

Berry,  Samuel  &  Wife,  September  26,  1802. 

Berry,  Sarah  (Wife  of  Asa),  November  24,  1803. 

Darby,  Lovill,  October  5,  1800. 

Gowin,  Mary  (Wife  of  Benjamin),  September  21,  [794. 

Leech,  Mr.  &  Airs.,  May  14,  1797. 

Millar,  Matthew  &  Wife,  October  5,  1S00. 

McAfee,  James  &  Wife,  November  10,  1793. 

Simonds,  Lynde  &  Wife,  July  26,  1795. 

Wiley,  Jonathan  &  Wife,  July  31,  1X05. 

Wiley,  Robert  &  Wife,  November  15,  1795. 

Members  Between  the  Reorganization  of  the    Church 
in  1 81 8  and  its  Final  Dissolution  in  1X40 

Barron,  Nancy  M.  (Single),  July   is,    [819        Removed    by 

letter. 
Barry,  Nancy. 

Billings,  Susan  I  \\  idi >w)3  <  >ctober  ;i.  1819 
Boynton,   Lydia   (Widow),  July    1,    1821.      B)    letter    t 

Springfield. 


jo  The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 

Brown,  Joel  M.,  June,  1838. 

Butterfield,  Almira. 

Clark,  Marcy  (Wife  of  Nathaniel),  July  18,  1819. 

fClark,  Nathaniel,  November  5,  181 8. 

Davis,  Hiram,  July  1,  1821. 

Davis,  Laura, 

Davis,  Melinda  (Wife  of  Hiram). 

Davis,  Melinda  Ann. 

Day,  Hannah  (Wife  of  Henry  C),  June  6,  1819. 

Day,  Henry  C,  June  6,  1819. 

Doan,  Roaland. 

Doan, (Wife  of  Roaland). 

Drury,  Josiah,  June  6,  1819. 

Emery,  Betsey  (Wife  of  Zacheus),  November  5,  1820. 

Evans,  Augusta. 

|Evans,  Eli,  1818. 

Evans,    Eli   J.,    December    26,    1819.     "Cut  of    from    this 

Church"  December  4,  1825. 
JEvans,  Hannah  (Wife  of  Eli),  181 8.     Died: 
Evans,  Olive. 

Evans,  Sarah  (Wife  of  Eli  Jr.),  June  6,  1819. 
Evans,  Warren  F. 

Felt,  Eluthera,  November  29,  181 8.     Died  April  5,  1819. 
Felt,  Lone  (Wife  of  Eliphalet),  June  6,  1819.     (Possibly  Lona 

.  Jane-) 
Gilson,  Eunice  (Wife  of  Zacheriah),  May,  1837.     By  letter 

from  Chester. 
Gilson,  Zacheriah,  May,  1837.     By  letter  from  Chester. 
Gould,  Caroline  (Wife  of  Thomas),  June  6, 1819.     Dismissed 

Sept.  25,  1839. 
Gould,  Thomas,  June  6,  1819.     "Cut  of  from  this  Church" 

Dec.  4,  1825. 
Gowing,   Elizabeth   (Wife  of  Samuel),  June   6,    1819.     By 

letter. 
Gowing,  Polly. 

Gowing,  Samuel,  June  6,  1819.     By  letter. 
Hill,  Lydia  (Wife  of  Moses),  June  6,  1819. 
Hill,  Moses,  June  6,  1819. 
Hoit,  Eunice. 

Keith,  Eunice  (Wife  of  Grindal),  June  20,  1819.     Died. 
Lake,  Abigail   (Wife  of  Henry),  September   12,   1819.     By 

letter.     Dismissed  by  letter. 
Locke,  Asa. 
Locke,  Catharine  R. 


Members  oj  the  First  Church  j\ 

Locke,  Eliza. 

Locke,  Fanny. 

Locke,  Hannah  (Wife  of  John  I. 

Locke,  John. 

Locke,  Laura. 

Locke,    Alary  Jane. 

Locke,  Nancy  S.,  October,  1S36. 

Lovell,  Harriet  (Wife  of  Ovid),  October  31,  1819.      Died. 

Mason,  Abigail,  May,  1837.  By  letter  from  Cavendish. 
Dismissed  by  letter,  Aug.  13,  1838. 

Mason,  Abigail  M.,  October,  1836.  Dismissed  by  letter, 
Aug.  13,  1838. 

Muzzy,  Anna  (Wife  of  Joseph),  June  6,  1819. 

Muzzy,  Joseph,  May  6,  1821. 

Nourse,  Annis  (Wife  of  Philip),  June  6,  1819. 

Nourse,  Lucy  (Wife  of  David),  December  26,  1819. 

Nourse,  Lydia  (Wife  of  Peter),  September  12,  iSi<,.  By 
letter. 

Nourse,  Peter,  September  12,  1 819.     By  letter. 

Nourse,  Philip,  May  6,  1821. 

Ober,  Hezekiah. 

JfOber,  Samuel,  November  5,  1818.  1st  Deacon,  chosen 
April  3,  1820. 

Phillips,  Nabby  (Widow),  June  6,  1819. 

Pierce,  Bridget  (Single),  July  1,  1821. 

Pulsipher,  David  Jr.,  June  6,  1819. 

Pulsipher,  Joanna. 

Pulsipher,  Lucy  (Single),  June  6,  1819. 

Pulsipher,  Philena  (Single),  June  6,  1819. 

Pulsipher,  Rebecca  (Wife  of  David). 

Pulsipher,  Sally  (Widow),  June  6,  1819.  Removed  by  join- 
ing the  Baptist. 

fRice,  Elizabeth  (Wife  of  Hezekiah),  November  5,  1818. 

fRice,  Hezekiah,  November  5,  iSis. 

Richards,  Eunice  (Wife  of  Edward),  1818. 

Richards,  John  Lock,  July  1,  1821. 

Richards,  Nabby  (Wife  of  John  L.),  July  1,  1  s;  1 . 

Richards,  Urana  B.,  June  6,  1819. 

Ripley,  Anna  (Wife  of  Epapheas),  181 8. 

Ripley,  Epapheas,  1 81 8.     Removed  by  letter. 

Severence,  Adeline,  May,  1837.  By  letter  from  Alstead. 
Dismissed  by  letter. 

Shepherd,  Jane  (Wife  of  Major),  September  ;.  1S20. 

Smith,  Huldey  (Widow),  December  4.  1S25. 


72 


The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 


Stearns,  Jonathan. 

Stearns,  Selima,  July  9,  1837. 

jSterns,  Lydia  (Wife  of  William),  November  5,  1S18. 

fSterns,  William,  November  5,  1818. 

Stodard,  Sally  (Widow),  June  6,  1819. 

Stoel,  Betsey. 

JStoel,  Joanna  (Wife  of  John),  June  6,  1819. 

|f  Stoel,  John,  November  5,  181 8.  2nd  Deacon,  chosen  April 
3,  1820. 

Stoel,  Lucy  (W7ife  of  Asa),  July  18,  18 19.     By  letter. 

fUpham,  Elizabeth  (Rice),  November  5,  1818.  Dismissed 
to  Sextons  River,  Nov.  11,  1837. 

Weston,  Hannah  (Wife  of  Nathan),  June  6,  1819. 

Weston,  Nathan,  June  6,  1819. 

JWhiting,  Sarah  (Widow),  July  18,  1819.  Dismissed  to  Sex- 
tons River,  Feb.,  1837. 

Wise,  Daniel. 

fWollage,  Rev.  Elijah,  November  5,  1818. 

Wollage,  Sarah  B.  (Single),  July  18,  1819. 

Wollage,  Sophia  (Single),  July  18,  1819.     Removed  by  letter. 

*Original  members  of  church  as  organized  October  27, 

1773- 

fOriginal  members  of  church,  as  reorganized  November 

5,1818. 

JNames  contained  in  lists  of  original  church,  1 773-1 809, 
and  reorganized  church,  1818-1840. 

Contributors  Towards    Purchase   of   a    Communion 
Service  March  22,  1819 

{Exclusive  of  seventeen  included  in  the  above  list  of  members.) 


Black,  Asa 
Campbell,  Alexander 
Campbell,  Alexander  S. 
Campbell,  J.  H. 
Earl,  Alary 
Earl,  Royal 
Earl,  Xeno'n 
Easterbrooks,  Abr'm 
Felt,  Warren 
Goodridge,  Samuel  \\  . 
Kendall,  Eleaz'r 
Lock,  Eben'r 
Lock,  Oren 
Lovell,  Ovid 


Miller,  Math. 
Nourse,  Daniel 
Nourse,  Sam'l 
Pulsipher,  D. 
Rollins,  Wm. 
Shepherd,  Isaac 
Stearns,  Eber 
Stoel,  Asa 
Wadsworth,  R. 
Webb,  Calvin 
Webb,  Luther 
Whiting,  J. 
Wiley,  John  2nd. 


APPENDIX    II 

List  of  Those    Filing  Certificates  With   Rockingham 

Town  Clerk  of  Religious  Preference,  to   Avoid 

Assisting    in    Support   of  the   Town    Church 

(Not  included  in  the  Index,  except  when  elsewhere  mentioned 
in  this  book.) 

B — Baptist;  C  E — Church  of   England;    E — Episcopal; 

PE — Protestant  Episcopal;  U — Universalist. 

D — Certificate  that  they  "Disagree  with  the  majority  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  town, "  without  stating  any  preference. 


Abner,  Jonathan,  I 

Adams,  Eli,  B 

Adams,  Josiah.  B 

Adams,  Luther,  U 

Adams,  Philip,  D 

Adams,  Samuel  M..  B 

Albee,  Ebenezer,  U 

Albee,  Ebenezer,  Jr.,  I 

Allbee,  John,  D 

Aldrich,  Simeon,  D 

Archer,  Benjamin,  D 

Atkinson,  Alexander,  D 

Atkinson,  Thomas,  D 

Atkinson,  Thomas  Jr.,  D 

Ayer,  Elisha,  B 

Avers,  David,  U 

Bancroft,  James,  PE 

Barney,  Erederick,  CE 

Barrett,  Joel,  B 

Barron,  Jonathan.  D 

Barry,  Jonathan,  D 

Barry,  Samuel,  D 

Bellows,  Abijah,  I 

Bellows,  Roswell,  D 

Bellows,  Solomon.  D 

Bennett,  John,  D 
Bennett,  Nathaniel  Jr..      D 

Berry,  Asa,  U 


Berry,  Joel,  D 

Bern  ,  John,  I 

Bickford,  Samuel.  D 

Bingham,  Ruben.  CE 

Bixby,  Daniel.  I 

Bixford,  Sam'll.  U 

Blanchard,  Jonathan,  PE 

Blanchard,  Seth,  D 

Bolles,  John.  D 

Bolles,  Jonathan.  U 

Bolles,  Lemuel.  D 

Bolles,  Xichoi  D 

Boynton,  John.  D 

Boynton,  Richard  Jr..  D 

Bradshaw  .  ( Jeorge,  D 

Burk,  Eastman,  D 

Burk,  Henry.  I ) 

Burt,  Jonathan.  I 

Burt,  Roswell.  D 

Byington,  Abraham.  D 

Campbell,  David.  U 

Campbell,  James,  U 

Chaffa,  Otis,  D 

Chamberlain.  Joel,  D 

Clark.  Hezekiah  \Yood,  D 

Clark,  Jedidiah,  D 

Clark,  Nathaniel,  D 

Clark.  Robert  (',..  D 


74 


The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 


Clark,  Timothy  Jr.,  D 

Claton,  John,  B 

Coburn,  Amezah,  B 

Cooper,  John,  U 

Cooper,  John,  D 

Cooper,  Zebede,  U 

Cutler,  Samuel,  D 

Cutler,  William  B.,  D 

Darby,  Edward  Jr.,  D 

Darling,  Timothy.  B 

Davis,  Benjamin,  D 

Davis,  Cyrus,  CE 

Davis,  Henry,  U 

Davis,  James,  D 

Davis,  Nathaniel,  U 

Dickinson,  Silas,  D 

Dill,  James,  PE 

Dorlen,  Timothy,  B 

Down,  Thomas,  D 

Drury,  Isaiah,  D 

Dunfree,  Cornelius,  CE 

Eastman,  Ichabod,  D 

Eastman,  Samuel,  U 

Eddy,  Benjamin,  D 

Edson,  Daniel,  B 

Edson,  Josiah,  U 

Ellis,  John,  D 

Emery,  Samuel  Jr.,  D 

Emory,  Samuel,  D 

Evans,  Ely,  D 

Evans,  Ely  Jr.,  D 

Evans,  Dea.  Peter,  PE 

Evans,  Peter  Jr.,  D 

Evans,  Randall,  D 

Farley,  Jesse,  D 

Fay,  John,  D 

Fish,  John,  U 

Fish,  Solomon,  D 

Fisher,  Enoch,  D 

Fletcher,  Luke,  U 

Garfield,  Enoch,  U 

Gibson,  Abel,  B 

Gibson,  John  W.,  D 

Gilmore,  John,  D 


Gilmore,  Robert,  D 

Gilson,  Joseph,  U 

Gilson,  Zachariah,  D 

Glasur,  Tabitha,  B 

Gloson,  Timothy,  B 

Gloson,  Wilber,  B 

Glosson,  Ichabod,  B 

Goodale,  Klijah,  B 

Goodell,  Elijah,  Jr.,  D 

Gould,  Thomas,  D 

Gowan,  Benjamin,  D 

Graves,  Daniel  Jr.,  D 

Gurnsey,  Eldad,  B 

Guston,  Thomas,  B 

Hall,  James,  B 

Hapgood,  Solomon,  D 

Haseltine,  Jonas,  U 

Haseltine,  Richard,  U 

Haseltine,  William,  U 

Hazelton,  William,  CE 

Hiames,  Stephen,  B 

Holden,  Isaac,  D 

Hooker,  Riceris,  U 

House,  James,  D 

House,  Sarah,  D 
Howes,  Bethial  Partridge,     D 

Jenney,  (?),  Eldah,  B 

Johnson,  Benjamin,  U 

Johnson,  Joshua,  B 

Johnson,  Joshua  Jr.,  D 

Jonson,  Robert,  B 

Kendall,  Isaac,  B 

Kidder,  Thos.,  U 

Kindel,  Eleazer  Jr.,  B 

King,  John,  U 

Knapp,  Ephraim,  D 

Knight,  Joel,  U 

Lake,  Henry,  U 

Lane,  Gresham,  B 

Larcum,  Amos,  B 

Leach,  John,  D 

Lock,  Abraham,  U 

Lock,  Daniel,  D 

Locke,  Ebenezer,  B 


Certificates  of  Religious    /' 


75 


Locke,  John, 
Lovell,  Elijah, 
Lovell,  Frink, 
Lovell,  John, 
Lovell,  John  W., 


D 
CE 
D 
D 
D 


Lovell,  Capt.  Timothy,    CE 

Marsh,  John,  U 

Marsh,  Joseph,  U 

Marsh,  Moses,  D 

Marsh,  Moses  Jr.,  U 

Marsh,  Samuel,  D 

Mason,  Isaac,  B 

Mather,  John,  E 

Mathers,  Asaph,  B 

Mcllwain,  Ebenezer,  D 

McNeel,  William,  D 

Mears,  Oliver,  D 

Meed,  Edward,  U 

Miller,  Matthew  Jr.,  D 

Miller,  Samuel,  D 

Minard,  Ichabod,  D 
Minard,  William, 

Morrison,  Jonathan,  D 

Morton,  Nathan,  D 

Muzzey,  Joseph,  D 

Nurse,  Peter,  D 

Nurton,  Stephen,  D 

Ober,  Kendall,  D 

Olcott,  Elias,  D 

Orr,  John,  D 
Packard,  (?),  Simeon,        D 

Page,  William,  D 

Parker,  (?),  David,  D 

Parker,  John,  U 

Parker,  Leonard,  U 

Parks,  Elijah,  B 

Parks,  Phineas,  B 

Partridge,  David,  D 

Perry,  Joseph,  D 

Perry,  Gates,  D 

Petty,  Solomon,  U 

Pike,  David,  (?),  U 

Pike,  Luther,  D 

Porter,  Chandler,  U 


Powars,  Joel, 

Power.,,  Abel, 
Powers,  Timothy, 
Prestton,  James, 
Prince,  Levi, 
Proctor,  Nathan, 
Pulsipher,  Ebenezer, 
Pulsipher,  John, 
Purkins,  Ruphus, 
Randall,  James, 
Raymenton,  Samuel  H. 
Read,  Isaac, 
Reade,  Elijah, 
Richardson,  Daniel, 
Ripley,  Benj., 
Ripley,  John, 
Roundy,  John, 
Roundy,  John  Jr., 
Roundy,  Ralph, 
Roundy,  Uriah, 
Royce,  Silas, 
Saben,  Levi, 
Sabin,  Elisher, 
Safford,  Alven, 
Safford,  Philip, 
Sargents,  Pelatiah, 
Searles,  Abijah, 
Severence,  Ebenezer, 
Smalley,  Jonathan, 
Smith,  Jedidiah, 
Stanley,  Elijah, 
Stearns,  Stephen, 
Stevens,  James, 
Stocker,  Elijah, 
Stowell,  Asa, 
Tarbell,  Jonathan, 
Thair,  Eleazar, 
Thayer,  Simeon  Jr., 
Thayer,  Wm., 
Thompson,  Ebenezer, 
Townes,  (?),  Samuel, 
Tozer,  Peter, 
Turner,  Royal, 
Wait,  John, 


Jr 


B 

I) 
U 

i; 

D 
D 
I) 
B 
B 
D 

,  D 
B 
U 
D 
B 
U 
B 
B 
U 
U 
D 
D 
B 
B 
B 
D 
U 
D 
D 
B 
D 
B 
D 
U 
D 
B 
B 
B 
E 
D 
D 
D 
D 

CE 


76 


The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 


Walker,  James, 
Walker,  Leonard, 
Walker,  Samuel, 
Weaver,  Daniel, 
Webb,  Joshua, 
Weed,  Joseph, 
Weston,  Joseph, 
Wheelock,  Salmon, 
Whitcomb,  Lucy, 
White,  Abel, 
White,  Abijah, 
White,  Phineas, 
Whitney,  Ezra, 
Wilcox,  Obidiah, 
Wiley,  Jonathan, 
Wiley,  Robt., 


U  Willard,  Isaac,  D 

D  Willard,  Oliver,  B 

D  Willson,  George,  D 

B  Wing,  Thomas,  B 

B  Wing,  Thomas,  D 

D  Woley,  Samuel,  D 

D  Wolf,  John  C,  D 

U  Wood,  David  Jr.,  D 

B  Woolf,  John,  D 

U  Wright,  Capt.  Moses,  CE 

U  Wright,  Moses  Jr.,  U 

U  Wright,  Nathan,  U 

U  Wright,  Solomon,  U 

D  Wright,  Solomon,  Jr.,  D 

D  Wyman,  John,  D 

D  Wyman,  Asa  Miller,  D 


W////////W/////////W. 


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2 


— 
- 


APPENDIX    III 
Extracts   From  the    Records 

a.     Organization  of   the   First   Church    in    Rocking- 
ham, October  27,  1773. 

Pursuant  to  Letters  Missive  from  the  People  in  Rocking- 
ham &;  Chester  in  the  Province  of  New  York  the  C'hh 
Brattleborough  Warwick,  Winchester,  Swanzy,  Charleston  n, 
Westmoreland,  Walpole  Lebanon  &  \\  rent  ham  by  their 
Elders  &  Messengers  &  the  Messengers  of  Hinsdale  &  Cornish 
were  conven'd  at  Rockingham  October  27th  1773. 

When  antecedent  to  their  embodying  into  a  Council  an 
Enquiry  was  propos'd  to  be  made  in  the  Standing  of  the  Chh 
in  Brattleboro'  upon  Which  the  Revd  Mr.  Reeves  &  the 
Messengers  from  Brattleboro'  being  previously  instructed 
&  empower'd  by  that  Chh  gave  us  full  Satisfaction  with 
regard  to  the  Credentials  of  Mr  Reeves  &  the  Agreement  of 
the  Covenant  of  sd  Chh  with  ours.  We  therefore  Unanimous- 
ly agreed  upon  their  desire  in  Consideration  of  their  peculiar 
Situation  to  receive  &  own  them  of  our  fellowship.  Never- 
theless we  take  this  method  and  Opportunity  to  bear  due 
Testimony  against  an}'  Chh's  forming  itself  S.  putting  itself 
under  the  Care  of  a  Minister  without  the  Concurrence  of 
Sister  Chhs  (where  it  may  be  had)  to  establish  a  Communion 
of  Churches. 

The  Chhs  proceeded  to  embody  into  a  Council  and  made 
Choice  of  the  Revd  Mr  Reeves  Moderator  is:  Mr  Fessenden 
Scribe,  the  Council  being  form'd  Voted  their  Acceptance  of 
Mr  Reeves  &  Brattleboro'  Chh  to  our  Communion.  &  our 
readiness  to  treat  him  &  them  as  such,  expecting  like  Returns 
from  them  &  that  the  Vote  be  made  Publick  at  this  Time  iv 
to  our  Chhs.  In  the  next  Place  the  Council  proceeded  to 
examine  Mr  Samuel  Whiting  the  Pastor  elect,  as  to  his 
Licence  to  preach,  his  regular  Standing  as  a  Christian,  his 
Doctrinal  Sentiments,  &  his  Views  of  Undertaking  the  Work 
of  the  Gospel  Ministry  is:  he  gave  full  Satisfaction  as  they 
expressed  by  Vote.  Voted  to  proceed  t<>  Ordination  iv  that 
Mr  Olcott  begin  with  Prayer,  Mr  Reeves  pray  before  the 


78 


The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 


Charge  Mr  Hedge  give  the  Charge,  Mr  Lawrence  the  right 
hand  of  Fellowship  &  Mr  Fessenden  conclude  with  Prayer. 
And  agreeable  hereto  the  Revd  Samuel  Whiting  was 
ordained  a  Gospel  Bishop  of  Chh  in  Rockingham  &  Chester 
Rockingham  Octobr  27th  1773.  Attest  Thomas  Fessenden 
Scribe  True  Copy  attst  Saml  Whiting. — Records  of  the 
First  Church. 


b.  A  letter  from  Mr.  Whiting  to  the  Town  regard- 
ing his  salary,  and  asking  that  the  Town  deed  to  him 
absolutely  the  Minister's  Right.     January  13,  1783. 

At  the  Request  a  Committee  Chosen   to  Treat  with  me 
in  behalf  of  the  Town  to  Know  how  I  would  Chuse  to  be 
Supported,  I  would  hereby  Declare  my  Concurance  with  the 
Vote  of  the  Town  at  a  meeting  on  January  1781  as  to  the 
manner  of  my  Supportt  and  Do  Consider  the  sd  Vote  of  the 
town  to  accept  of  me  as  their  Settled  minister  and  to  Give 
me  an  Annual  Salarey  agreeable  to  the  former  Covenant  from 
a  Number  of  the  Inhabitants  of  this  Town  as  a  Satisfactory 
Securety  for  my  futer  Supportt  and  am  Ready  and  willing  to 
Give  up  the  Obligation  I  Now  have  from  the  Subscribers  as 
soon  as  I  am  paid  or  Secured  as  to  what  Remains  Due  on  the 
Same.     And  I  thank  you  Gent'n  of  this  Town  for  the   Regard 
you  have  shoon  me  in  accepting  me  as  your  minister  and 
Rejoyce  with  you  in  the  more  Equitable  moad  that  this  state 
has  provided  for  the  supportt  of  the  Gospell  and  it  would  be 
agreable  to  me  if  the  Town  would  pass  a  particular  vote  to  be 
Recorded  that  you  Quit  all  Claime  and  title  to  that  Right 
of  Land  which  I  am  now  in  possession  of  an  that  You  do 
Consider  it  to  be  secured  to  me  and  my  Heirs  by  the  Charter 
of  this  Town  and  that  you  will  afford  Your  Endeavors  and 
assistance  that  I  may  peacable   possess  and  hold  the  same. 
More  than  which  I  have  nothing  to  ask  at  present  but  your 
prayers  for  me  and  United  Endeavers  with  me  for  Our  Peace 
Good  Regulation  well  fair  and  Happeness  as  a  Town  and 
Society. 


(sgd) 


c^Z. 


<=*     >V)     << 


>^^C^ 


To  the  Gentlemen  of  the  Town  of  Rockingham 

January   13th,   1783 


Extracts  from  the  Record*  j<, 

The  town  then  passed  the  following  vote: 

"Voted  that  this  town  Havcing  Chosen  and  a 
the  Revd  Samll  Whiting  as  their  minister  and  the  sd  Samll 
Whiting  haveing  Concurd  with  us  herein  and  accepted  of  the 
Anavel    Supportt  offered    Do    consider  the    Rjghl    oi     Land 
Granted  in  the  Charter  of   the   Town   by  the    Provinci 
Newhampshir  to  the  first  settled  minister  to  be  the  sd  Samll 
Whiting's   and  that   the  Town  do  Quitt  all   supposed  Right 
or  Title  to  the  same  being   Ivnoon  and  Lotted  out  upon  the 
plan  by  the  name  of  the  Minister's  Right  and  will  afford  their 
Endevors  and    assistance  that  the  sd  Samll  Whiting  Peace- 
ably    and    Quietly     possess    hold    Injoy    the   same. —  7 
Records,  Vol.  I,  p.  82. 

c.     Letter  of  Rev.  Samuel  Whiting  to  his  Congr< 
tion  March,  1798,  reviewing  the  history  of  the  church. 

The  Chh  in  this  Town  was  gathered  &  Organized  on  the 
Day  of  my  Ordination  October  27,  1773.  It  was  Composed 
of  the  Pastor  Elect  &  eleven  other  Male  Members.  .  .  . 
two  of  these  eleven  were  residents  of  Chester.  .  .  .  dui 
the  first  five  years  two  of  the  first  nine  who  subscribed  the 
Covenant  were  removed  by  Death.  Since  the  first  gather- 
ing of  the  Chh,  about  70  have  been  received,  some  of  whom 
have  been  removed  by  Death,  others  have  removed  from  us 
to  other  places.  Some  have  so  left  us  in  principle  as  to  have 
left  our  Communion,  &  there  remains  now  about  50,  little 
more  than  12  are  Males,  a  Considerable  part  of  the  male 
members  are  aged,  &  the  active  part  of  the  Chh  are  about  as 
small  as  when  I  was  ordained. 

It  pleased  Providence  to  remove  from  the  Chh  some 
years  past  &  soon  after  each  other  three  Deacons  who  as  it 
were  began  with  us,  &l  were  great  supporters  &  helpers  to 
further  Religion  among  us. 

The  unhappy  disputes  in  Politics  which  at  several  times 
have  run  so  high  among  us,  have  evidently  been  unfavourable 
to  the  flourishing  of  Religion,  the  Disputes  &  divisions  in 
respect  to  Religious  principles  which  have  had  a  great  run 
among  us,  tho  they  may  have  not  lessened  the  Quant  it; 
Religion,  have  been  unfavourable  to  the  Communion  & 
Numbers  of  the  Chh.  The  increase  of  Wealth  in  this  Town 
&  the  Introduction  of  Luxuries,  the  Changes  in  Civil  Govern- 


80  The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 

raent,  the  endeavours  5c  attempts  which  have  been  made  for 
Obtaining  some  Publick  funds  for  providing  a  decent  house 
&  supporting  Publick  Worship  therein,  &  the  disappoint- 
ments which  attended  these  attempts,  &  the  common  Dis- 
putes which  have  arisen  in  Civil  matters,  all  have  evidently 
appeared  unfavourable  to  the  flourishing  state  of  outward 
Religion  among  us.  the  mention  of  these  general  things 
readily  reminds  us  of  the  great  Share  of  Calamity's  which  we 
have  suffered  &  been  carried  thro'.  Our  present  weakness 
&  the  frowns  of  Heaven  which  are  upon  us  need  not  be 
dissembled  ever}-  private  View  may  well  be  swallow'd  up 
in  a  regard  for  Religion  &  Community.  At  the  present 
populous  State  of  the  Town,  &  its  great  increase  in  Wealth 
no  decent  provision  can  be  made  for  publick  Worship  after 
repeated  trials;  Without  any  addition  to  the  Minister's 
Salary  under  all  the  depreciation  that  attends  it  It  had  be- 
come more  &  more  burdensome  no  decent  provisions  are 
made  for  the  Administration  of  Ordinances  but  not  to  en- 
large upon  the  peculiar  Circumstances  of  the  Town  as  might 
easily  be  done,  the  Pastor  wishes  to  be  encouraged  &  strength- 
ened, if  it  can  be  done  consistent  with  truth  &.  honesty, 
otherwise  not. 

The  record  of  the  meeting  continues: 

after  some  Conference  upon  the  above, — no  Votes  were 
past,  but  the  Chh  meeting  was  adjourned  to  the  Meeting 
House  on  the  first  Monday  in  April  at  One  O  Clock  in  the 
Afternoon. 

Met  according  to  adjournment  when  it  was  concluded 
that  Mr  Whiting  make  his  proposals  of  beginning  preaching 
again  to  the  people  in  Town  Meeting  &  thus  begin  &  his 
Salary  be  paid  by  those  who  have  not  Certificated,  in  pro- 
portion to  their  doing  their  part  towards  Supplying  the 
Pulpit  the  whole  time.  Records  of  the  First  Church. 

d.  Investigation  by  the  Town  of  Charges  against 
Rev.  Samuel  Whiting  in  1799. 

To  the  Gentlemen  Selectmen  of  the  Town  of  Rockingham 
As  their  appears  to  be  great  uneasiness  in  the  minds  of  the 
Church  &.  Congregation  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Whiting  in  regard 
to  his  proceedings  and  nonperformances  of  Duty  in  the  line 
of  the  Ministry  &c  these  are  to  request  you  to  call  a  Meeting 


Extracts  from  the  Records  \  I 

of  said  Congregation  to  see  what  method  can  be  taken  in 
order  to  calm  the  minds  and  give  reasonable  Satisfaction  to 
every  one  so  that  we  may  meet  and  worshi]  as 

becomes  a  Christian  people.  Samuel  Taylor  Ely  Evans 
Benjamin  Williams  John  Gilmore  and  Calvin  Webb. 

Rockingham  April  27,  179'/- 
Agreable  to  the  above  request  these  are  to  warn  all  those 
who  are  members  of  the  Revd  Samuel  Whitings  Congrega- 
tion to  meet  at  the  Meeting  House  in  Rockingham  on  Mon- 
day the  13th  Day  of  Instant  May  at  12  oclock  at  noon  to 
first  choose  a  moderator  to  govern  said  Meeting 
2ly  To  act  on  the  substance  of  the  Petition.      Levi  Sabin 

Rockingham  first  of  May   1799         Jona  Barron 

Eliphalet  Felt 
Selectmen. 

Rockingham    13th   May    1799. 
Then  met  the  Members  of  the  Revd  Samuel  Whitings  Con- 
gregation  agreable    to   the   above    request   &   warning   and 
firstly  made  choice  of  Jehiel   Webb   Esqr    as  Moderator  to 
govern  said  Meeting. 

2ly  it  was  motioned  and  seconded  to  see  if  the  Society  will 
choose  a  Committee  to  converse  with  the  Revd  Mr.  \\  hiting 
as  to  his  Ministerial  performances  and  is  past  in  the  Affirmi- 
tive,  sd  committee  to  make  report  at  the  adjournment  of 
this  meeting. 

3ly  Voted  and  chose  Mess.  Samuel  Taylor  Jehiel  \\  ebb 
Samuel  Emory  James  McAfee  Levi  Sabin  Benjamin  Wil- 
liams and  John  Gilmore  for  the  committee  last  above  men- 
tioned. 

4lv  voted  to  adjourn  the  present  Meeting  until!  the  last 
Monday  of  Instant  May  to  meet  at  the  Meeting  House  in 
sd  Rockingham  at  one  oclock  afternoon. 

Jehiel  Webb,  Moderator. 
Attest  Jona.  Burt  Town  Clerk. 

May  27th,  1799. 

The  Meeting  opened  according  to  adjournment  and  alter 
some  conversation  the  meeting  was  dissolved. 

Jehiel  Webb.   Moderator 
Attest  Jona  Burt  T.  Clerk. 

Volume  2,  Town  Records. 


82 


The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 


e.     Dismissal  of  Rev.  Samuel  Whiting.     1809. 

To  the  Selectmen  of  the  Town  of  Rockingham  Gentlemen 
I  would  request  you  to  insert  an  artical  in  your  warrant  for 
your  annual  Town  Meeting  in  March. — To  See  the  Town 
will  dismiss  me  from  ministerial  Services  hear. — And  if  so  to 
choose  committee  to  confer  and  agree  with  me  as  to  measures 
which  may  be  thought  proper  and  honourable  for  disolving 
the  pastorial  relation  between  me  and  the  Church  and  people 
in  this  place. — 
Gentlemen 
I  am  led  to  make  the  above  request  of  the  Town  for 
reasons  very  different  and  distant  from  any  neglect  of  the 
people  to  incourage  in  My  Services  among  them  altho  I 
confess  it  is  hard  on  many  accounts  to  use  my  indevours  to 
keep  up  any  Ministerial  dignity  and  Stated  worship  of  God 
on  the  Sabbath  When  their  are  so  few  to  attend  upon  my 
public  ministry. — 

But  it  appears  to  me  that  with  the  utmost  exertions  my 
usefullness  must  be  nearly  closed  and  my  health  and  Spirits 
are  considerably  impaired. —  And  I  have  some  wishes  to 
try  to  repair  them  by  some  jorneys  and  relaxation  from 
business;  Perhaps  some  may  suppos  their  is  no  need  of  any 
formality  in  my  dismission  under  present  Surcumstances 
and  while  the  civil  Law  makes  no  provision  (as  it  is  generally 
understood)  for  the  Support  of  Settled  Ministers,  however 
I  allways  had  and  still  have  some  Scruples  as  to  the  propriety 
and  duty  of  a  Ministers  leaving  his  people  without  some 
formallity  and  agreemint  of  parties.  When  the  relation  & 
connection  had  been  formed  with  so  much  Seriousness  and 
Solemnity  as  in  our  usual  ordinations. —  And  tho  their  are 
few  among  us  to  remember  the  great  Solemnity  affection  & 
Religion  which  took  place  in  my  ordination  in  this  place 
Since  Most  of  those  who  were  principal  actors  &.  Spectators 
in  that  early  and  infant  State  of  the  town  are  dead  &  I  who 
have  Survived,  have  attended  their  remains  to  the  Silent 
Grave:  their  are  some  however  that  survive  with  me  and  I 
trust  it  will  be  most  agreable  to  their  feelings  that  their 
Should  be  some  friendly  &  formal  dissolution  of  the  Con- 
nection between  us  as  paster  &  people,  &  that  their  should 
be  no  appearance  of  Strife  or  contention  between  us. —  And 
I  think  this  would  be  most  honourable  to  the  Town,  and 
most  conducive  to  an  honorable  and  Speedy  reestablish- 
ment  of  the  Ministry  of  this  Town  which  is  now  become 


'Mhiiiw^ 


Extracts  from  the  Records  83 

numerous  and  wealthy  and  I  think  this  at  least  but  a  Small 
degree  of  honour  which  the  Town  will  be  ready  to  granl  to 
me  when  they  consider  what  ferments  &  Collisions,  both  in 
Religion  &  politicks  have  taken  place  and  1  have  been  called 
to  pass  through  them  in  the  course  of  my  Mini  \nd 

when  they  consider  also  that  I  alone  remain  in  Standing  in 
the  Ministry  in  this  State  of  those  who  were  ordained  before 
me. — the  Above  are  the  principle  Reasons  of  My  requ 
to  which  request  I  would  beg  the  town  to  give  their  friendly 
and     serious    attention.     Samuel     Whiting.     Rockingham, 
Feb.  24,  1809.  Town  Records,  Vol.  4,  />.   / 

In  accordance  with  the  above,  an  article  was  in- 
serted in  the  warning  for  the  town  meeting  held  March 
13,  1809,  on  which  the  following  action  was  taken. 

Voted  that  William  Hall  Alexander  Campbell  &  Elijah 
Knight  Esqrs  be  a  Committee  to  wait  on  the  Revd  Samuel 
Whiting  &  make  report  at  the  adjorment  of  this  present 
Meeting  of  their  doings  with  Said  Mr.  Whiting. 

Tozvn  Records,  Vol.  4,  p.  180. 

The  committee  made  the  following  report, — 

To  the  Town  of  Rockingham  in  town  meeting  assembled 
your  Committee  appointed  to  unite  with  the  Committee  of 
the  Church  to  confir  with  the  Reverand  Samuel  \\  biting 
reletive  to  dissolving  the  pastorial  union  between  him  &  the 
Church  &  the  people  in  this  place—  Report  that  they  have 
meet  with  the  Church  Committee  and  confired  with  Mr. 
Whiting  on  the  Subject  and  find  that  he  wishes  to  have  the 
dissolution  Carried  into  effect  in  a  formal  and  honorable 
manner  as  regards  himself  and  the  town,  he  informed  your 
committee  that  he  did  not  ask  of  the  town  any  compensation 
by  which  his  estate  would  be  increased;  but  requests  that  a 
certain  portion  of  his  property  might  be  exempt  from  taxa- 
tion during  the  remainder  of  his  natural  life,  the  following 
were  the  reasons  assigned  for  the  above  request  that  he  had 
been  in  the  Ministerial  Services  thirty  six  years:  and  in  the 
infant  State  of  society  in  the  town  had  passed  through  the 
Strougles  of  a  revolutional  war.  and  Shared  many  hard- 
ships in  common  with  his  fellow  citisons.  and  in  late 
times  had  Suffered  by  Religious  dessintions.  that  for  several 
years  his  sallery  had  been  reduced  nearly  one  halt,    -that 


84  The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 

for  a  long  time  he  had  been  Subjected  to  pay  taxes  a  thing 
no  other  clejyman  in  the  State  has  don.  that  if  the  town 
should  exempt  on  the  grand  list  annually  two  hundred  dol- 
lars of  his  property  during  his  life  it  would  be  placing  him  in 
no  better  Situation  than  his  brethering  of  the  Clargy 
Whose  property  had  never  been  taxed.  He  also  is  of  opinion 
that  a  Council  would  not  readly  consint  to  dismiss  a  minis- 
ter in  regular  Standing,  and  without  any  accusations  being 
alleged  against  him.  when  a  request  of  this  kind  had  been 
made  and  refused,  your  Committee  beg  leave  to  Suggest 
to  the  town,  that  if  the  Reverind  Samuel  Whitings  request 
Should  be  granted  and  Council  be  called  to  dismiss  him. 
that  it  will  be  necessary  to  choose  another  Committee  or 
enlarge  the  powers  of  the  present,  committee  for  the  pur- 
pose of  uniting  with  the  Church  Committee  in  writting  to 
some  of  the  neighbouring  Churches  requesting  their  assist- 
ance by  their  pastor  &  delegate,  in  disolving  the  relation 
between  Mr.  Whiting  &  the  Church  &  the  people  in  this 
place  your  Committee  consider  the  settling  or  dismissing 
the  minister  a  matter  of  importance  to  Society. —  as  good 
order  and  a  well  regulated  community  tends  to  the  promtion 
of  morallity  and  religion,  while  its  opisite  is  often  Sub- 
versive of  order  distructive  to  morals  and  weakens  the  Social 
Compact.- —  your  Committee  are  impressed  with  the  im- 
portance of  treating  the  Subject  with  all  possable  delicacy 
and  order. — much  in  their  opinion  depends  as  it  regards  the 
future  interest  and  happiness  of  the  town,  on  the  Manner 
in  which  the  present  relation  is  disolved.  if  it  is  effected  in 
harmony  and  the  town  should  ever  think  of  Settling  another 
minister  they  would  be  more  likely  to  obtain  a  man  of  tal- 
lants  who  will  support  the  dignity  of  his  Station,  than  by 
an  opposite  proceedure  your  Committee  are  fully  aware  of 
the  difference  of  opinion  in  religious  sentiments  in  this  place 
but  still  they  cannot  but  hope  that  all  party  dissentions 
will  Subside,  and  that  the  good  sence  of  the  town  pre- 
dominate and  buisness  be  taken  up  coolly  debated  upon — 
Candidly. — and  measures  adopted  for  the  dismission  Mr. 
Whiting  honourably. — 
All  of  which  is  humbly  Submitted  by. — 

William  Hall  Jr 

Elijah  Knight  Committee 

Alexander  Campbell 

Rockingham  April  10th  1809.  Town  Records,  Vol.  4,  p.  183. 


Extracts  from  tin-  R, 

At  the  adjourned  town  meeting  held  April  10.   i 
the  above  report  was  acted  upon  in  the  following  man- 
ner: 

Voted  that  the  report  of  the  Committee  appointed  on 
the  13th  of  March  last  to  confir  with  the  reverend  Samuel! 
Whiting  reletive  to  dissolving  the  pastorial  union  between 
him  &  Church  &  people  be  recorded — and  also  that  said 
Committee  be  impowered  to  unite  with  the  Committee 
the  Church  in  calling  a  council  for  the  purpose  of  dismissing 
the  said  Mr.  Whiting. — 

Voted  that  two  hundred  dollars  be  exempted  on  the 
grand  list  annually  of  the  Reverend  Samuel  Whitings  proper- 
ty during  his  natural  life  from  all  taxes  in  case  he  should  be 
dismissed  from  being  the  towns  minister  by  council  to  be 
called  for  that  purpose. — Town  Records,  Vol.  4,  p.  183. 

The  last  entry  in  Mr.  Whiting's  handwriting  in  the 
Records  of  the  First  Church,  and  the  only  entry  after 
that  quoted  above  as  of  March  5,  1798,  is  the  follow- 
ing, rather  pathetic  in  its  abrupt  termination: 

March,  1809 

the  Chh  met  at  the  house  of  the  Revd  Mr  \\  biting  agree- 
able to  appointment,  when  the  Pastor  made  request  that  he 
might  be  dismissed  from  his  Ministerial  Labours  &  after  Con- 
versing on  the  Subject  the  Chh  Voted  to  comply  with  the 
Pastor's  Request  that  a  Dissolution  of  the  Pastoral  Relation 
between  pastor  and  Chh  8c  should  take  place  &  Chose  brother 
Jehiel  Webb  and  brother  John  Ellis  a  Committee  to  unite 
with  the  Committee  of  the  Town  to  invite  an  ecclesiastical 
Council  to  advise  &  assist  in  this  important  transaction. 
2dly  Voted  to  send  to  the  Chhs  in  Walpole,  Grafton  and 
Springfield  as  a  Council. 

Letters  Missive  were  accordingly  sent  to  those  Chhs,  who 
all  of  them  met  at  the  house  of  William  Hall  in  Rockingham 
on  the  18th  of  May  1809  &  having  formed  into  Ecclesiastical 
Council,  they  united  in  the  following  result  Viz. 

f.  Reorganization  as  the  Congregational  Church 
of  Christ  in  Rockingham,  November  5,  t8l8. 


86 


The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 


Rockingham,  A.  D.  1818. 

Be  it  remembered  that  Elijah  Wollage  on  the  first  Satur- 
day of  July  A.  D.  1818,  came  first  to  this  town,  at  the  request 
of  Judge  Knight,  one  of  the  Comt  for  hiring  preaching  to 
supply  the  pulpit  in  the  north  meeting  house  in  sd  Rocking- 
ham. .  .  That  the  said  Wollage  contracted  for  four 
months,  that,  on  the  expiration  of  that  term,  the  Society 
gave  him  a  call  to  preach  with  them  four  years,  beginning 
the  first  of  July  af'd.  that  he  accepted  the  call  on  a  salary 
of  $425.00  per  annum,  that  as  the  church  of  the  Revd  Mr. 
Whiting  was  no  longer  to  be  found;  but  most  of  the  members 
either  dead  or  removed  away  or  had  joined  to  some  other 
denomination  it  was  thought  expedient  to  look  up  what 
few  there  might  be  found  and  in  some  way  organize  for  the 
enjoyment  of  Gospel  privileges. 

It  was,  therefore,  thought  advisable  to  invite  some  of  the 
neighboring  ministers  of  the  Congregational  order  to  come 
and  assist  in  reestablishing  a  church  in  this  place.  Accord- 
ingly, on  Thursday,  the  fifth  day  of  November  A.  D.  1818, 
the  Rev.  Sylvester  Sage  of  Westminster,  East  Parish,  the 
Revd  Mr.  Field,  of  Westminster,  WTest  Parish,  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Smiley  of  Springfield  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Goodale  of 
Grafton,  convened  at  the  dwelling  house  of  the  Revd  Elijah 
Wollage,  in  said  Rockingham,  and,  after  due  examination 
of  Mr.  Whitings'  records,  and  that  no  visible  church  of 
Christ  could  possibly  be  found:  they  submitted  to  the  few, 
who  had  been  professors  in  the  old  church,  under  Mr.  Whit- 
ing, and  some  others,  who  had  been  members  of  other 
churches,  the  following  confession  of  faith  and  covenant, 
viz, — * 

The  foregoing  Confession  of  faith  and  Covenant,  having 
been  read  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Sage  in  the  presence  of  the  other 
ministers  and  many  witnesses,  they  were  both  unanimously 
adopted  and  subscribed  to,  by  Samuel  Ober,  Hezekiah  Rice, 
John  Stoel,  William  Sterns,  and  Nathan'l  Clark,  and  also 
by  Lydia  Sterns  and  Elizabeth  Rice. 

After  the  foregoing  had  been  subscribed  to,  they  were 
again  read  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Sage,  to  the  subscribing  mem- 
bers, in  the  Second  person,  You  and  each  of  you  &c  &c  &c 
and  the  subscribers  having  made  choice  of  the  Rev.  Elijah 
Wollage  for  their  Moderator,  were  then  declared  to  be  the 
Congregational  Church  of  Christ  in  Rockingham. 

Attest,  Elijah  Wollage,  Moderator 
Records  of  First  Church.  of  said  Church. 

*Pages  41  and  92. 


— r^-^r-S. 


> 


2£ 

— 

: 

— 

z 

— . 

r 


Extracts  from  the  Records  S7 

g.     Ordination  of  Rev.  Samuel  Mason,   [anuar 

1837. 

Rockingham  Jan.  1837. 

About  the  first  of  last  August  a  contract  was  entered  inti  1 
by  which  I  was  to  Preach  in  this  place  three-fourth  of  the 
time.  After  having  supplied  them  two  Sabbath  I  rerno 
to  town,  and  continued  to  labor  accordingly.  Application 
was  made  to  the  Vermont  Domestic  Missionary  for  assistance 
about  the  first  of  Sept.  toward  my  support,  which  was 
granted.  The  monthly  concert  and  church  meeting  was 
held  on  the  first  Monday  of  each  month;  in  Oct.  an 
exchange  was  effected  with  Br.  Bradford  of  Grafton  and 
the  Church  enjoyed  a  season  of  communion  when  two  were 
added  to  their  number. 

On  the  first  Monday  in  December  at  the  regular  Church 
meeting  it  was  agreed  that  we  would  have  an  Ordination 
the  first  Wednesday  in  Jan.  following,  and  that  a  committee 
of  the  Church  consisting  of  Dea  John  Stoel,  Br  Asa  Lock  Br 
David  Pulciphir  and  Br  Hiram  Davis  unite  with  the  pastor 
Elect  in  calling  an  Eclesiastical  council  to  meet  on  Tuesday 
Jan.  4  at  the  house  of  Dea  Stoel  at  6  o'clock  P.  M.  Letters 
missive  were  sent  to  the  Churches  in  Springfield  Chester 
Grafton  Sextons  River  Westminster  east  Westminster  West, 
and  the  Rev.  Ira  Ingraham  Cor  Sec  V  M.  D.  M.  S.  Agreable 
to  the  foregoing  The  result  was  as  follows 

At  an  Eclesiastical  council  convened  by  letters  missive 
from  the  Congregational  church  in  Rockingham,  at  the  house 
of  Dea  Stoel  at  6  o'clock  P.  M.  Jan.  3,  1837  were  present 

From  the  church  in  West,  Rev.  Timothy  Field  acting 
Pas  Br  Atherton  Hall  Delegate 

From  the  Church  in  Chester  Rev  U.  C.  Burnap  Pas. 
Sextons  River  Rev  Nelson  Barber  Pastor 
Br  Isaac  Ober  Delegate 
Springfield  Rev  H  B  Holmes  Pastor 
Br  George  Johnson  Del. 
Grafton  Br  Daniel  Wright  Del. 

The  council  was  organized  by  choosing  Rev.  Timothy 
Field  Moderator  H.  B.  Holmes  Scribe. 

Council  opened  with  prayer  by  the  moderator  papers 
were  presented  by  the  committee  of  the  church  purporting 
to  be  a  call  to  Mr  Samuel  Mason  to  settle  with  them  in  the 
work  of  the  Gospel  ministry — and  his  answer  to  the  same. 


f 


88 


The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 


1BHnr" — 


Credentials  of  church  membership  and  certificate  of 
licensure  were  presented  by  Mr  Mason. 

Mr  Mason  was  then  examined  relative  to  his  personal 
piety  his  doctrinal  views  and  motives  for  entering  the  minis- 
try. 

\  oted — to  sustain  the  examination  and  proceed  to  the 
services  of  ordination  tomorrow  at  1 1  o'clock. 

Timothy  Field  Moderator 
H.  B.  Holmes  Scribe 
Samuel  Mason  Pastor 

Records  of  First  Church. 

h.  Dismissal  of  Rev.  Samuel  Mason,  August  22, 
1838. 

The  Pastor  and  a  committe  of  the  church  came  before 
the  council  and  made  their  respective  Statements.  It  ap- 
peared from  them  there  existed  difficulties  and  Dissensions 
in  the  church  which  greatly  impaired  Br.  Mason's  prospects 
of  usefulness  and  his  ministerial  influence;  which  diminished 
the  subscription  for  his  salary,  and  would  probably  deprive 
him  of  the  aid  of  the  Dom.  Miss.  Society  thus  rendering  his 
support  both  inadequate  and  precarious.  In  view  of  these 
circumstances  the  council  voted  unanimously,  that  the 
pastoral  relation  between  Rev.  Samuel  Mason  and  the 
Cong  Church  in  Rockingham  ought  to  be  and  is  hereby 
Disolved. 

The  council  exculpate  Bro  Mason  entirely  from  any  part 
in  the  difficulties  and  Dissensions  mentioned,  which  appear 
to  have  existed  before  his  labors  commenced,  and  they  cheer- 
fully recommend  him  as  a  faithful  Brother  in  the  ministry 
to  whatever  field  God  in  his  Providence  may  lead  him. 

It  is  with  deep  regret  that  the  council  find  themselves 
constrained  to  adopt  their  conclusion:  a  conclusion  which 
seems  not  merely  to  deprive  the  church  of  a  pastor  for  the 
time  being,  but  to  put  an  end  to  its  prospect  of  enjoying 
the  ordinances  of  the  Gospel.  And  they  entreat  the  brethren 
of  the  church  as  they  regard  the  welfare  of  the  surrounding 
community,  the  eternal  interests  of  their  neighbors  their 
kindred  and  their  families;  for  the  sake  of  Zion  and  her  King, 
to  put  away  every  root  of  bitterness  from  among  them,  to 
quench  the  flame  of  Discord,  and  to  exhibit  such  an  united 
and  lovely  aspect  that  they  may  hope  to  obtain  and  uphold 
another  Pastor  to  labour  more  successfully  among  them. 


Extracts  from  the  Records 

Adjourned  with  prayer  by  the  scribe.     Moses  li.   Brad- 
ford, Mod.     Silas  H.  Hodges  scribe. 
A  true  copy  of  the  original  minutes. 

Records  of  First  Church. 

I.     Entries    in    Church    Records     bearing    on    the 

Articles  of  Faith  and  Covenant  of  the  Church,  1773-18 1 8. 

Aug.  30,  1778.  Chh  tarried  &  appointed  a  Chh  Meeting 
to  be  on  Friday  following  to  Consider  whether  the  Chh  will 
receive  any  to  priveledges  without  Receiving  to  full  Com- 
munion or  in  other  words  whether  the}-  will  adopt  the  half 
way  Covenant.     Commonly  so  call'd. 

September  4,  177S.  Chh  Met  according  to  appointment 
&  Voted  1.  that  the  Chh  Covenant  Stand  without  any 
Alterations  &  no  Adult  Persons  be  admitted  to  Priveledges 
&  taken  under  the  Watch  &  Care  of  the  Chh  without  promis- 
ing an  Attendance  on  the  Lord's  Table. 

2.  that  persons  having  ownd  the  Covenant  elsewhere 
Residing  among  us,  may  receive  Priveledges  in  this  Chh  even 
while  they  do  not  come  to  the  Table  of  the  Lord  so  Long  as 
in  the  Judgement  of  Charity,  the  Chh  can  suppose  they  are 
endeavoring  to  remove  their  Scruples  as  to  coming  to  the 
Table  of  the  Lord,  &  in  other  Respects  live  answerable  to  a 
Christian  Profession. 

3.  \  oted  that  the  Pastor  desire  of  Brother  Joseph  Wood 
the  Reasons  of  his  Still  absenting  from  the  Lord's  Table. 

Nov.  14,  1779.  Chh  Tarried  when  the  Chh  were  inform'd 
of  the  Desire  of  Doctr  Reuben  Jones  &  his  Wife  to  be  pro- 
pounded to  the  Chh  &  join  in  full  communion,  but  that 
Doctr  Reuben  Jones  would  not  give  an  Assent  to  the  Coven- 
ant, which  was  Customary  to  be  assented  to  by  Persons 
before  the}'  are  receiv'd  into  full  Communion  if  the  Chh 
insisted  upon  it  as  a  term  of  Communion,  but  if  it  was  only 
desir'd  of  him  by  the  Chh  as  a  favour,  he  was  read}'  to  do  it, 
he  being  present  further  explain'd  himself  &  gave  his  Reasons 
before  the  Chh,  &  the  Chh  Voted  that  the  Matter  rest  for 
Consideration.  (After  several  discussions  on  this  subject, 
Dr.  Jones  and  his  wife  were  admitted  to  the  church  Feb.  1  ;. 
1780.) 

July  6,  1783      Chh  Tarried  after  Publick  Worship 
I     The  Question  was  put,  whether  the  Pastor  be  directed 
to  Examine  particular!}'  all  that  offer  themselves  to  be  pro- 


9° 


The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 


pounded  to  the  Chh  as  to  their  Sentiments  respecting  Infant 
Baptism  &  if  they  do  not  hold  to  Infant  Baptism  as  it  is 
generally  held  to  in  the  Congregational  Chhs,  &  do  not 
think  it  their  Duty  to  bring  their  Children  to  Baptism  in 
Infancy,  that  it  be  mention'd  to  the  Chh  when  they  are 
propounded,  &  if  they  are  receiv'd  into  the  Chh  be  matter 
of  Record,     pass'd  in  the  affirmative. 

May  6,  1784.  Chh  Met  according  to  Appointment,  when 
Some  of  the  Congregation  being  present,  they  made  request 
to  the  Chh,  that  there  might  be  a  door  Open  for  the  Baptism 
of  the  Children  of  Such  as  had  Scruples  upon  their  minds 
about  Coming  to  the  Table  of  the  Lord  &  yet  were  willing  to 
enter  into  Covenant  &  put  themselves  under  the  Watch  & 
Care  of  the  Chh,  &  offer'd  further  that  they  Consider'd 
this  as  a  Priveledge  which  they  had  a  right  to  Demand,  as 
they  understood  that  the  Cambridge  Platform  was  to  be  the 
Rule  by  which  this  Chh  was  to  govern  themselves  by.  After 
Considerable  Conference,  it  was  agreed  upon  that  for  the 
purpose  of  Coming  to  some  mutual  Agreement  three  members 
of  the  Chh  should  be  Chosen  to  Join  with  three  persons  of 
the  Congregation,  as  a  Committee  with  the  Pastor  to  devise 
&  form  some  Rule  of  proceeding  to  be  laid  before  the  Chh, 
in  order  for  their  acceptance,  &  voting  it  as  a  Rule  of  Pro- 
ceeding in  the  Chh.  The  Chh  made  Choice  of  DeacnPeas, 
Peter  Evans  Junr  &  Jehiel  Webb,  to  join  with  John  Herod, 
Charles  Richards  &  Caleb  Church,  who  were  Chosen  on  the 
part  of  the  Congregation. 

(After  considerable  discussion  of  the  matter,  and  several 
votes,  some  of  them  later  reconsidered,  the  following  was 
adopted  June  15  "as  a  Rule  of  Proceeding  in  the  Chh  so 
long  as  the  Chh  perceiv'd  any  good  effects  of  the  same") — 

This  Chh  taking  into  Consideration  the  Uneasiness  of 
Numbers  of  the  Congregation  &  their  request  that  they 
might  enjoy  a  Supposed  Priveledge  of  having  the  Ordinance 
of  Baptism  administred  to  their  Children,  tho  they  do  not 
Come  up  to  the  Table  of  the  Lord  &  join  in  full  Communion 
with  the  Chh — a  liberty  which  is  granted  in  many  Chhs  of 
our  Communion  tho  not  so  generally  as  formerly 

Voted  1.  That  the  Chh  cannot  Consider  it  to  be  a  pro- 
fession of  Faith  in  Christ  &  Obedience  to  him.  while  a 
Reserve  is  made  as  to  Coming  up  to  the  Sacrament  of  the 
Supper,  &  while  there  is  no  profession  of  Obedience  to  this 
Dying  Command  of  the  Saviour. 

2     That  the  Chh  would  Charitably  Suppose    that  such 


Extracts  from  the  Records  <>\ 

Adult  persons  as  had  been  Baptiz'd  &  thereby  bro't  into  >h<- 
Chh  in  their  Infancy  &  of  good  Moral  Behaviour,  did  not 
mean  to  renounce  their  Baptism,  reject  the  Authority  watch 
&  Discipline  of  the  Chh  or  Disclaim  all  Priveledges  from  it; 
by  their  neglect  in  not  answering  the  Design  of  their  early 
Baptism,  even  to  profess  faith  in  Christ  &  Obedience  to  1  lim 
&  thereby  make  it  Their  own  Act  &  Deed  in  a  professed  & 
publick  manner 

3  That  the  Chh  are  willing  that  Baptism  be  adminis- 
tered to  the  Children  of  all  Such  of  whom  they  can  have 
this  Charitable  Thot  as  mention'd  in  the  preceding  Vote  &. 
would  desire  their  Pastor  thus  to  practice. 

4  Voted  that  such  as  have  been  guilty  of  Moral  Scandal 
do  make  Christian  Satisfaction  therefor  in  order  to  their 
receiving  any  Priveledges  in  the  Way  above  mentioned. 

5  That  the  Applying  for  any  Priveledge  in  the  Chh 
shall  be  understood  as  an  acknowledgement  of  the  Authority 
of  the  Chh  over  such  as  Apply  &  that  it  be  Consider'd  as  an 
actual  putting  themselves  under  the  Watch  &  Care  of  the 
Chh  &  that  they  receive  Priveledges  no  longer  than  they 
submit  to  the  Authority  &  Discipline  of  the  Chh. 

6  That  such  as  do  receive  Baptism  for  their  Children 
or  any  Priveledges  in  the  Way  above  mentioned  do  make  a 
Publick  Profession  of  their  beleif  of  the  Christian  Religion 
do  acknowledge  the  Validity  of  their  own  Baptism  in 
Infancy,  &  their  Beleif  of  the  Spiritual  Right  of  Administer- 
ing Baptism  to  the  Infants  of  such  as  are  members  of  the 
Visible  Chh,  &  the  propriety  of  the  Mode  as  practie'd  in  our 
Chh's,  that  they  promise  to  bring  up  their  Children  in  the 
Nurture  &  Admonition  of  the  Lord  &  will  submit  to  the 
Discipline  of  the  Chh  exercis'd  in  a  Reasonable  &.  Gospel 
method. 

7.  That  the  Pastor  propound  such  as  apply  for  receiving 
Priveledges  at  least  one  Week  before  they  are  received  to 
Priveledges  &  he  is  desir'd  &  directed  to  enquire  of  all  apply- 
ing whether  they  have  for  some  Reasonable  term  of  time 
Statedly  read  Gods  Wrord  &  pray'd  in  their  Families  Care- 
fully attended  on  the  Worship  of  God  with  their  Families  on 
the  Lords  Day  &  unless  they  can  Answer  in  the  Affirmative 
in  these  Points,  not  to  propound  them  to  Priveledges  as 
without  the  Practice  of  these  things  the  Chh  cannot  Con- 
sider that  there  is  any  kind  of  Security  for  the  good  Kduca- 
tion  of  the  Baptiz'd  Children  or  any  reasonable  Expectation 
of  it. — Records  of  First  Church. 


92  The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 

j.  Confession  of  Faith,  Covenant  and  rules  of 
the  Church  after  its  Reorganization  in  1818. 

You  and  each  of  you  believe  that  there  is  only  one  living 
and  true  GOD.  that  there  is  One  Mediator  between  God 
and  man,  even  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  there  is  no  salvation 
in  any  other:  that  the  Holy  Ghost  proceedeth  from  the 
Father  and  the  Son  and  is  the  Renewer,  Sanctifier,  Comforter 
and  perfecter  of  his  Saints;  and  that  these  three,  Father, 
Son  and  Holy  Ghost,  are  the  one  GOD. 

You  and  each  of  you  believe  that  the  Scriptures  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments  are  the  word  of  GOD,  and  the  only 
sure  guide  to  direct  the  tempers,  desires  and  dependance  of 
the  soul  and  the  actions  of  life:  that  sin  is  a  most  deadly  evil 
and  unrepented  of,  will  issue  in  endless  death,  its  just  wages: 
while  true  holiness  is  exceeding  lovely  in  itself  and  will  pro- 
duce unspeakable  happiness  to  its  possessors,  and  end  in 
eternal  life  and  blessedness  in  the  kingdom  of  glory. 

You  and  each  of  you  do  now  endeavor,  in  the  sincerity 
of  your  hearts,  to  take  the  Lord  Jehovah,  Father,  Son  and 
Holy  Ghost,  whose  being  and  perfections  you  have  professed 
to  believe,  to  be  your  GOD,  and  engage  to  be  his  willing 
subjects  forever.  You  take  the  holy  scriptures  for  the  only 
rule  of  your  life  and  accordingly  covenant  to  live  agreeably 
to  them,  a  life  of  repentance,  faith,  and  new  obedience;  and 
to  renounce  every  evil  &  false  way.  You  give  up  yourselves 
to  Christ  in  this  his  church  and  engage  to  attend  on  all  the 
ordinances  of  GOD's  house  and  the  Gospel  discipline  here 
administered,  so  long  as  it  shall  please  God  to  continue  you 
here  among  us. 

Thus  you  and  each  of  you  promise  and  engage,  depending 
on  divine  grace  to  enable  you  rightly  to  perform  these  your 
Covenant  Vows. — Records  of  First  Church. 

November  11,  1819.  the  church  passed  the  following 
rules  among  others,  for  its  guidance: 

Fourthly.  That  all  private  labor,  for  private  offences 
shall  be  according  to  the  eighteenth  chapter  of  St.  Matthew's 
Gospel. 

Sixthly.  That  no  candidate  shall  be  admitted  into  the 
church  without  giving  satisfactory  evidence  of  a  change  of 
heart.  This  evidence  to  be  given  to  the  Pastor,  who,  for 
the  present,  is  appointed  by  the  church  as  their  committee 
for  such  examination. 


Extracts  from  the  Records  93 

Eightly.  That  no  candidate  shall  be  required  To  make 
any  public  confession  for  any  former  sin-,  (.rimes  or  mis- 
demeanors, when  his  or  her  repentance  and  reformation 
shall  evidence  a  new  heart  and  life:  and  such,  as  in  the 
charity  of  the  church,  God  accepts. 

Ninth.  That  all  after  offences  shall  be  confessed,  if 
brought  before  the  church  or  becomes  a  matter  of  public 
notoriety,  before  the  whole  congregation. 

Tenth.  The  ordinance  of  baptism  shall  be  administered 
to  the  children  of  none,  but  such  as  are  in  full  communion 
in  this  or  some  Sister  church. 

Twelfth.  That  no  member  of  any  Sister  Congregational 
church,  residing  in  this  town,  shall  have  any  Church  privileg- 
withes,  after  one  year's  residence,  except  such  members  unite 

this  Church  in  covenant  relation. — Records  of  First  Church. 

k.     The  Meeting  House  completed. 

Rockingham  August  23rd  1799 
We  the  Subscribers  request  the  Honorable  Selectmen  of 
Rockingham  to  call  a  meeting  of  the  inhabitants  of  said 
Town  for  the  purpose  of  consulting  and  agreeing  upon  some 
mode  of  finishing  the  Meeting  House  in  said  Town. 
Samuel  Emery  Samuel  Cutler  Jehiel  Webb  David  Pulsipher 
Ely  Evens  John  Lovel 

The  meeting  was  called  and  held  on  Sept.  3,  1799. 
A  large  majority  were  in  favor  of  finishing  the  Meeting 
House,  and  a  committee  composed  of  William  Page, 
Samuel  Cutler  and  John  Lovel,  Esq.,  was  appointed  to 
investigate  the  proceedings  of  a  former  committee  who 
built  the  Meeting  House,  to  propose  some  method  of 
finishing  it,  and  to  report  at  an  adjourned  meeting. 

The  adjourned  meeting  was  held  on  Sept.  24th,  1799, 
and  the  following  report  of  this  special  committee  was 
"excepted" — 

Your  committee  appointed  to  examin  into  the  Several 
accounts  for  building  the  Meeting  house  and  what  method 
the  Town  had  Best  to  adopt  to  finish  the  same  report — viz — 
That  the  amt  due  on  Sundry  obligations  for  pews  sold  is 
£106:10:7;  that  there  are  5  pews  on  the  lower  floor  not  sold 
Estimated  at  1*40:0:0  that  there  are  9  do  on  the  2nd  floor  not 
sold  Estimated  at  £36:0:0      That   there  is  due  from  Isaiah 


94 


The  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 


Smith  £3  :o:o  That  there  is  due  from  Benjamin  Williams  in 
finishing  the  outside  of  the  Meeting  House  £3:10:0.  Sum 
total,  £189:0:7  that  there  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Committee 
who  built  the  said  house  a  contract  from  John  Savage  & 
James  Walker  to  compleat  outside  of  said  meetinghouse — 
and  that  they  are  of  the  opinion  that  a  Committee  be  ap- 
pointed to  open  a  Subscription  to  obtain  a  Sum  in  addition 
to  the  sum  above  Stated  (or  what  can  be  collected)  which 
may  be  sufficient  in  their  opinion  to  finish  or  compleat  Said 
Meeting  house — and  then  call  a  meeting  of  the  Subscribers 
who  when  meet  may  enter  into  some  arrangement  as  they 
Shall  think  proper  to  finish  the  same  as  soon  as  may  be. 
William  Page,  Samll  Cutter,  John  Lovell. —  Town  Records, 
Vol.  2. 

John  Lovell,  Samuel  Cutler,  Daniel  Weaver,  James 
Walker,  &  Philip  D  Davis  were  chosen  as  this  committe. 
The  subscribers  met  March  7,  1800  and  passed  the  following 
votes: — 

firstly  Made  choice  of  William  Page  Esq  Moderator  for  sd 
Meeting. 

2ly  voted  that  the  finishing  of  the  Meeting  house  above 
mentioned  shall  be  set  up  at  public  vendue  and  that  the 
lowest  bidder  shall  have  the  jobb. 

3ly  voted  that  the  Meeting  house  be  compleated  by  the  first 
Day  of  August  which  will  be  in  the  year  1801. 
4-ly  voted  that  said  house  be  painted  &  glazed  by  the  first 
of  August  Next. 

5ly  voted  that  a  Committe  of  three  be  chosen  to  superintend 
the  finishing  of  said  Meeting  House. 

61y  voted  that  Samuel  Cutler  John  Lovell  &  Jonathan 
Barron  shall  be  the  Committe  last  mentioned. —  Town 
Records,   Vol.  2. 

At  the  regular  March  Meeting  in  1804,  Elijah  Knight, 
James  Walker,  and  Levi  Sabin  were  appointed  a  committee 
to  examine  "and  settle  account  of  committee  last  appointed 
to  finish  meeting  house  in  said  Town  and  to  number  the 
pews  in  said  house  as  the  Original  Plan  in  which  the  bidders 
names  are  insirt  &  request  the  Committee  who  sold  said 
pews  to  certify  to  Accuracy  of  the  same  and  to  transmit  the 
said  plan  to  the  Town  Clerk  for  record". — Town  Records, 
Vol.  2. 

It  is  greatly  to  be  regretted  that  this  original  plan 
is  not  to  be  found  among  the  records  of  the  Town 
Clerk's  office. 


APPENDIX  IV 

Bibliography  Regarding  the  Meeting  House  and 

Church 


HISTORY  OF  THE  TOWN  OF  ROCKINGHAM,  VER- 
MONT, Lyman  S.  Hayes,  1907.  Pp.  123  to  150.  With 
illustrations. 

RECORDS  OF  THE  FIRST  CHURCH  OF  ROCKING- 
HAM, VERMONT.  Copied  by  Thomas  Bellows  Peck, 
with  an  Historical  Introduction.      1902. 

VITAL    RECORDS   OF    ROCKINGHAM,   VERMONT, 

from  the  Beginning  of  the  Records  to  January  1,  1845. 
Compiled  from  the  Town  Records  by  Thomas  Bellows 
Peck,  1908. 

SOME  OLD  TIME  MEETING  HOUSES  OF  THE  CON- 
NECTICUT VALLEY,  by  Charles  Albert  Wight,  B.  A., 
191 1.     Pp.  141-144,  with  illustrations. 

RESTORATION  OF  AN  HISTORIC  MEETING  HOUSE, 

by  C.  W.  Osgood,  in  The  Vermonter  for  August,  1907. 
Illustrated. 

A  FORGOTTEN  COLONIAL  CHURCH,  by  H.  W.  Des- 
mond, in  Architectural  Record  for  August,  1903.  Illus- 
trated. 

BELLOWS  FALLS  AND  VICINITY,   ILLUSTRATED. 

P.  H.  Gobie  and  L.  S.  Hayes,  1908.     With   illustrations. 


APPENDIX  V 

Constitution  of  the  Old  Rockingham  Meeting  House 

Association 

{Organized  May  I,  iqii.) 

I.  The  membership  of  the  Society  shall  comprise  those, 
or  the  descendants  of  those,  who  have  resided  for  a  period  of 
one  year  or  more  in  any  one  of  the  following  towns : — Rocking- 
ham, Walpole,  Westminster,  Grafton,  Chester,  Springfield, 
Charlestown  and  Alstead;  who  are  duly  elected  members  of 
the  Society  and  who  pay  into  the  treasury  a  sum  of  not  less 
than  $1.00. 

II.  The  Officers  of  the  Society  shall  consist  of  a  Presi- 
dent, two  or  more  Vice-Presidents,  a  Treasurer,  a  Secretary 
and  a  Librarian,  who  shall  be  elected  at  the  annual  meeting 
of  the  Society  in  April  and  shall  hold  office  for  one  year, 
or  until  their  successors  are  elected. 

III.  The  general  administration  of  the  affairs  of  the 
Society  in  carrying  out  its  purposes  shall  be  entrusted  to  an 
Executive  Committee,  to  consist  of  the  officers  of  the  Society 
and  two  members  from  each  of  the  several  towns  represented 
in  the  Society.  Five  shall  constitute  a  quorum  of  the 
Executive  Committee,  and  ten  a  quorum  of  the  Society. 

IV.  The  annual  meeting  of  the  Executive  Committee 
shall  be  held  on  the  last  Monday  in  January,  and  the  annual 
meeting  of  the  Society  shall  be  on  the  last  Monday  in  April, 
in  Bellows  Falls,  and  special  meetings  of  the  Society  shall 
be  held  upon  the  call  of  the  President,  or  at  the  request  of 
ten  or  more  members. 

V.  Provision  shall  be  made  for  an  annual  pilgrimage 
to  the  old  Rockingham  Meeting  House  in  the  latter  part  of 
July  or  the  early  part  of  August  in  each  year. 

V  I.  The  library  of  the  Society  shall  be  deposited  in  a 
fireproof  building,  or  in  fireproof  vaults  in  Bellows  Falls, 
and  shall  contain  publications,  records,  relics  and  documents 
of  historic  interest,  and  shall  be  for  consultation  by  members 
of  the  Society  and  others,  under  the  direction  of  the  librarian. 


Constitution 


97 


VII.  The  Society  shall  accumulate  from  year  to  year  a 
permanent  fund  through  gifts,  devices  and  bequests,  t he- 
interest  of  which  shall  be  used  in  carrying  out  the  purposes 
of  the  Society.  The  expenses  of  the  annual  pilgrimage  to 
the  old  Rockingham  Meeting  House  shall  be  met  by  sub- 
scriptions received  from  among  the  members  and  friends  of 
the  Society.  If  any  contributor  to  the  Pilgrimage  Fund 
desires  to  qualify  as  a  Alcmbcr  under  Article  I,  $1.00  from 
his  contribution  shall  be  paid  into  the  treasury  of  the  Society 
for,  the  Permanent  Fund. 

VIII.  This  form  of  organization  may  be  amended  by  a 
two-thirds  vote  of  any  regular  meeting  of  the  Society,  pro- 
vided that  notice  of  the  amendment  is  mailed  to  each  mem- 
ber of  the  Society  at  least  one  week  in  advance  of  the  date 
of  meeting,  at  which  action  on  the  amendment  is  proposed. 


INDEX 


{Does  not  include  lists  of  members  of  the  First  Church  in 
Appendix  I,  nor  those  filing  Certificates  of  Dissension  in 
Appendix  II.) 


ALLBEE,     Ebenezer,  20. 
E.  W.,  20. 

Rev.  Horace,  20,  21. 
Associations  of  Ministers  in  Wind- 
ham County,  49. 
Association    of    Ministers    of    the 
Gospel  in  the  County  of  Cumber- 
land, 46. 

BABBITT,  F.  H.,  64. 

Bailey,  Crissana,48. 

Ballou,  Rev.  Henry  L.,  58,  64. 

Baptism,  40,  41,  89,  90,  91,  93. 

Baptists,  21,  36. 

Barber,  Rev.  Nelson,  42,  87. 

Barron,  Jonathan,  81,  94. 

Bath,  N.  H.,  45. 

Beardslce,  Rev.  R.  A.,  49. 

Belknap,  W.  C,  54,  57,  5®. 

Bellows,  Col.  Benjamin,  45. 

Mrs.  Josiah  G.,  58. 
Bellows  Falls,  18,  52. 

Ministers'  Association,  51. 
Bennett,  Nathaniel,  39. 
Bennington,  church  in,  29. 
Bibliography    regarding    Meeting 

House,  95. 
Billings,  Samuel  L.,  53. 

Susannah,  53. 
Black  River  Association,  41. 
Bradford,  Rev.  Moses  B.,  87,  89. 
Brattleboro,  church  in,  29,  77. 
Brown,  Deacon  Joel,  28,  38. 

,38. 

Burnap,  Rev.  U.  C,  87. 
Burr,  Jonathan,  39. 
Burt,  Lieut.  Jonathan,  17,  81. 
Burying  Ground,  22,  24. 
Byington,  Abraham,  24. 

CAMBRIDGE,  church  in,  48. 
Cambridge  platform,  90. 


Cambridgeport,  16. 

Campbell,    Alexander,  83. 
Dr.  E.  R.,  54- 

Candle  in  the  Choir,  (poem),  11. 

Certificates  of  disagreement,  31,  73. 

Charlestown,  44. 

church  in,  40,  77. 
meeting  house  in,  19. 

Chester,  church  in,  29,  42,  78,  79,  87. 

Church,  see  First  Church  in  Rock- 
ingham. 

Church,  Caleb,  90. 

Church  of  England,  16. 

Clark,  Nathaniel,  86. 

Clarke,  Rev.  L.  Mason,  63. 

Communion  service,  42,  55. 

Congregational  Church  of  Christ  in 
Rockinghan,  36,  85. 

Congregationalists,  21,  28. 

Consociation  in  Windham  County, 

37,  38,  43,47,49- 
Constitution  of  the  Old  Rockingham 

Meeting  House  Association,  96. 
Cornish,  church  in,  41,  77. 
Councils  of  other  churches,  4 1 . 
Covenants,  40,  41,  89,  92. 
Crothers,  Rev.  Samuel  M.,  61. 
Cutler,  Samuel,  93,  94. 

DARTT,  Justus,  58. 

Davis,  Hiram,  87. 

Nathaniel,  18,27,30,39,55. 

Philip  D.,  94. 
Day,  H.  E.,  24. 
Deacons,  30. 

Dillingham,  Sen.  W.  P.,  63. 
Disputes  settled  by  church,  39. 
Dissenters,  31,  73,  80. 
Divoll,    J.B.,43- 

Mary  O.,  56,  57. 
Natt.  L.,  54,  58. 
Dover,  church  in,  49. 


IOO 


EARL,  Royal,  42. 
Ellis,  John,  85. 
Emory,  Samuel,  81,  93. 
Evans,    Asher,  30,  39. 

EH,  81,93. 

Mercy,  30. 

Peter,  30,  39. 

Lieut.  Peter,  17. 

Peter  Jr.,  17,  30,90. 


Index 


FELT,  Eliphalet,  81. 
Female  Society,  42. 
Fessenden,  Thomas,  77,  78. 
Field,  Rev.  Timothy,  86,  87. 
First  Church  in  Rockingham, — 

First  votes  regarding,  26. 

Organized,  27,  77. 

Services  suspended,  36,  85. 

Re-organized,  36,  85. 

Abandoned,  38. 

Summary  history  of,  79. 
Foreword,  9. 
Fort  Dummer,  44. 
Fuller,    Ebenezer,  30. 
Gen.  John,  21. 
Mercy,  30. 

GARDNER,  Rev.  Andrew,  26,  27, 
44. 

General  Convention  of  Congrega- 
tional Churches  in  Vermont,  45, 

47- 
Gilmore,  John,  81. 

Goodale,  Rev. ,  86. 

Gould,  Capt.  Thomas,  42. 
Grafton,  church  in,  41,  85,  86,  87. 
Granfield,  Mortimer  J.,  47. 
Guilford,  church  in,  29,  48. 

HALF-WAY  Covenant,  30,  40,  41, 

89,  90. 
Hall,  John,  24. 

William,  83,  85. 

Rev. — ,  41. 
Harding,  Rev.  Elisha,  26,  27,  44,  45. 
Hardy,  Rev.  Edwin  N.,  61. 
Haskins,  Kittredge,  54. 
Hayes,  L.  S.,  57,  58,63. 
Hazzleton,  David,  20. 

Richard,  20. 
Hedge,  (Hodges?)— ,  78. 
Herod,  John,  90. 
Hinsdale,  church  in,  jj. 
Hodges,  Rev.  Silas  H.,  42,  78,  89. 
Hoit,  Levi,  hall,  24. 


Holmes,  Rev.  H.  B.,  87. 

Holton,  Dr.  H.  D.,  57,  58. 

Hooper,  Prof.  Franklin  W.,  3,  57, 

58,59,62,63,64. 
Hooper,  Warren  L.,  58. 

EMMANUEL  Church,  36. 
Inscription,  3. 

JACKSON,  Elizabeth  Billings,  53. 
Jones,  Dr.  Reuben,  56,  62,  89. 

KEEFEJ.E.,55- 
Key,  Keepers  of,  23. 
Knight,   Elijah,  83,  94. 
Judge,  86. 

LARRABEE,  Anne,  30. 

Samuel,  30. 
Law  regulating  support   of   gospel, 

3i>37- 
Lawrence,  ■ — ,  78. 

Merrill,  L.,  58. 
Lebanon,  church  in,  77. 
Lock,  Asa,  87. 
Locke,    Foster  B.,  54. 

Phoebe,  48. 
Lovell,    Hope,  55. 

John,  17,93,94. 

Oliver,  17,  27. 
Lyman,  Rev.  A.  J.,  62. 

MACKAYE,  Percy,  11,  62. 

Marlboro,  church  in,  29. 

Marsh,  James,  24. 

Mason,  Rev.  Samuel,  37,  44,  49,  87, 

88. 
McAfee,  James,  81. 
McQuaide,  T.  R.,  55. 
Mead,   Edwin  A.,  61. 

Gov.  John  A.,  62. 
Meeting  House, — 

First  votes  regarding,  16. 

Temporary  building  erected,  17. 

Site  presented  to  town,  18. 

Present    building    erected,    20. 

First  used  by  town,  2 1 . 

Completed,  22,  93. 

Description  of,  22. 

Regular  services  abandoned,  5 1 . 

Now   used   irregularly   for  ser- 
vices, 51. 

Town  meetings  moved  to   Bel- 
lows Falls,  52. 

Votes  to  restore,  52. 


Index 


101 


Me<  ting  I  louse 

Restored,  53- 

Re-dedi<  ated,  53. 
Members  of  First  Church,  30,  33,  37, 

66,  79. 
Methodists,  36. 
Minister  Tax,  3'»  33- 
Ministerial  Association,  39. 
Ministers,  associations  of,  39,  46,  49, 

51. 
Ministers'     Association,     Bellows 

I  alls,  51. 
Minister's  House,  45,  47. 
Minister's  Right,  t6,  47.  7s 

Mitchell,  Herbert  W.,  57,  >s- 
Moxom,  Rev.  Philip  S.,  63. 

NEWBURY,  church  in,  29. 
.Neufane,  church  in,  29,  41. 
North  Meeting  House,  24. 
Norwich,  church  in,  29 

OBER,  Samuel,  86. 
Olcott,   Elias,  30,  39. 
Sibbel,  30. 

,77- 

Old     Rockingham     Meeting  House 
Association,   28,   43,    55,    57,   96. 
Osgood,  C.  W.,  54,  57,  58. 

PAGE,  William,  93,  94. 

Pain,  Eunice,  25. 

Peas,  Deacon,  90. 

Pease,   |acob,  30. 

I  Yck,  Thomas  Bellows,  28,  55,  58,  60. 

Perry,  Horace  A.,  58. 

Philips,  Jonas,  24. 

Pilgrimages,  Annual,  to  Old  Meeting 

1  louse,  54,  61. 
Potter,  Rev.  Rockwell  II.,  63. 
Pratt,  Rex.  A.  P.,  57,  58,  63. 
Prentiss,  John  W.,  58. 
Proctor,  Nits.  Prank,  48. 
Proprietors  of  Rockingham,  15. 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  16,  36. 
Pulsifer,  (Pulsipher),  Elvira,  7. 
Pulsipher,  David,  17,  18,  24,  28,  30, 

43,  59.  87,  93- 
Elizabeth,  30. 
Samuel  \Y.,  24. 
\\  illiam  \\  .,  55. 

,39- 

Putnam,  Mrs.  W.  H.  H.,  28,  43. 

Putney,  church  in,  29,  41,  49. 


R  \Y,  Myn>n  II.,  53. 

Reading,  church  in,  41 . 

Records    ol    the    First    Church    in 

Rockingham,  27. 
Reed,  I  r<  d<  rick,  24. 
Reeves,  Re\  . — ,  77. 
Rice,    Elizabeth,  86. 
Ih/.ekiah,  86. 
Richards,  Charles,  18,  90. 

I  unice,  42. 
Rockingham  town  of, — 
c  lharter  issued,  15. 
Proprietors  or  Grantees,  1  5. 
First  permanent  settlement,  [I 
Town  government  organized,  16. 
Town  meetings   moved  to  Bel- 
lows Falls,  t-. 
Ri  ickingham,  village  of,  6,  18,  22,  26. 
Roundy,  Rev.  Rodney  W.,  54. 

SABIN,  Levi, 94. 
Sage,  Sylvester,  86. 
Salary  of  ministers,  32,  33. 
Sargeants,  Rev. — ,  41. 
Saxtons  River, — 

Meeting  House  erected,  24. 

First  Baptist  Church,  36. 

Church  in,  42,  87. 

Attempts  to  get  town  meetings, 

52- 
Shaw,  Rev.  H.  H.,  54. 

Sherburne,  Rev.  L.  O.,  54. 
Shuttlesworth,  Rev. — ,  42. 
Simonds,  William,  18,  30. 

,  30. 

Sheer,  Dr.  Thomas  R.,  61 . 
Smiley,  Rev. — ,  86. 
Springfield,  church  in,  85,  86,  87. 
Stearns,     Lydia,  86. 

William,  86. 
Stoel,   Deacon  John,  86,  87. 

.  27. 

Swain,  A.  N.,  19. 
Swanzy,  church  in,  77. 

TAX,  Minister,  31.  33. 
Taylor,  Samuel,  17,  24,  27,  81. 
Thctford,  church  in,  29. 
Thomas,  John  M..  62. 
Thomlinson  (Grafton),  church  in,  4 1 . 
Thompson,  Mrs.  Horace  \\  .,  ;:,  54, 

55- 
Tuttle,  A.  I'..,  64. 

UNIVERSALISTS,  21,  36. 


102 


Index 


VERMONT    Domestic  Missionary 

Society,  87. 
Vermont  Missionary  Society,  46. 
Vilas,  Charles  N.,  58. 

WADHAMS,  Mrs.  Frederick  E.,  56, 

62. 
Walker,  James,  94. 
Walpole,  45. 

Church  in,  40,  yj,  85. 
Wardsborough,  church  in,  42. 
Warwick,  church  in,  jj. 
Weaver,  Daniel,  94. 
Webb,  Calvin,  81. 
Webb,  Jehiel,  48,  81,  85,  90,  93. 

Joshua,  55. 
Wentworth,  Gov.  Benning,  15. 
Westminster,  church  in,  29,  40,  41. 
East  Parish,  church  in,  86,  87. 
West  Parish,  church  in,  49,  86, 
87. 
Westmoreland,  church  in,  jj. 
Weston,  Mrs.  Ezekiel,  20. 

Mrs.  Henry  N.,  48. 
West  Rutland,  church  in,  29. 
Wheelock,  Abner,  24. 
White,  Rev.  Broughton,  38,  44,  49. 

Josiah,  25,  55. 
Whiting,  Crissana  B.,48. 
John  G.,  48. 
Joseph,  48. 

Rev.  Samuel,  17,  30,  44. 
Ordained,  28,  jy. 


Whiting,  Rev.  Samuel, 

Salary  of,  32,  78,  83. 

Suspends  preaching,  33,  79. 

Charges  against,  34,  80. 

Dismissed    from    ministry,    35, 
82. 

History  of,  45. 

Genealogy  of,  47. 
Whitten,  Frank  S.,  55. 
Wiley,  John  2nd,  55. 

Willard,  Joseph,   21    (footnote). 

Williams,  Benjamin,  81. 

Nathan  G.,  57,  58. 

Winchester,  church  in,  77. 

Windham  Association  of  Ministers, 
46  (footnote),  47,  49. 

Windham  County  Bible  Society,  49. 

Windham-Union    Ministers'    Meet- 
ing, 49,  50. 

Windsor,  church  in,  29,  42. 

Winn,  Caleb,  24. 

Wolfe,  Caspar  Shana,  55. 

Wollage,  Rev.  Elijah,  33,  36,  37,44, 
48,  86. 

Wood,  Joseph,  89. 

Woodstock,  church  in,  42. 

Woodward,  Calvin  M.,  61. 

Wrentham,  church  in,  "]"]. 

Wright,     Capt.   Azariah,    56    (foot- 
note). 

Moses,  27. 


nt>* 


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